Woman hospitalised by dingo in uncharacteristic attack in Far North Queensland

An environmental scientist and volunteer firefighter was cooking dinner when a desperate and malnourished dingo attacked her in her own home.

A WOMAN has been left with arm, hip and leg injuries after a dingo attacked her in her own home in Cape York on Sunday.

Lucy Friend, 28, who is currently fighting bushfires in the Iron Range rainforest, was hospitalised after a malnourished dingo turned on her in her kitchen while cooking dinner.

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“It started stalking me, it crouched down,” Ms Friend said. “It grabbed onto my thigh, I was so surprised.”

A bite mark left on Lucy Friend's arm. Picture: Lucy Friend.

The environmental scientist, who works with animals as part of her job, said the dingo’s behaviour took her by surprise.

“Even when the dingo was latched to my thigh, I was thinking ‘what are you doing?’”

“It was just really really aggressive, which is really strange,” she said.

The dingo bit her on the thigh, then the hip, before locking its jaws onto her arm.

She was forced to hit the wild dog, her screams for help alerting nearby friends to rush to her aid.

“(My friend Gabrielle) pulled the dingo off me and got bitten in the process,” Ms Friend said.

After the ordeal, Ms Friend described the dog as looking “very skinny” and said it was possibly desperate for food, given the Far North Queensland area was flattened by Cyclone Trevor earlier this year and was currently being impacted by bushfires.

Experts say dingo attacks within homes were very uncharacteristic. Picture: Channel 9.

Ms Friend has been in the Iron Range rainforest helping fight the fires, and said the ‘desperate attack’ was no surprise.

“I’ve never seen rainforest burn like that … it’s heartbreaking,” she said.

“We have been finding that a lot of the animals are malnourished. You find them dying.”

Ms Friend said people could help the local region by calling on the National Parks to commit more resources to fighting the fires in the rainforest.

One veterinarian told the ABC the attack was uncharacteristic for a dingo to attack a person in a home.

A Cairns Hospital spokesman said Ms Friend has since been discharged.