A social media star with a long-time fascination with dingoes is warning travellers to K’gari (Fraser Island) to educate themselves about the animal before visiting the popular destination.
Former Sunshine Coast resident Marc Jacewicz, aka the Travelling Bushman, made the call after a five-year-old boy was attacked by a dingo last month near the remote Ocean Lake camping area, on the northern end of the island.
Mr Jacewicz, who has been in wildlife conservation for 20 years, has a strong following on social media, with 11,000 followers on Facebook.
He uses the platform to do “educational uploads” on a broad range of wildlife, from crocodiles to spiders, snakes, sharks and the “misunderstood” dingo – or wongari, as K’gari’s Butchulla people call it.
He said the only way to prevent another dingo attack or fatality was for people to learn more about the animal.
“Dingoes really should be seen as a national icon for Australia, they are beautiful and very very misunderstood,” he said.
“They’ve had the raw end of the deal for the past 40 years and they are continuously misunderstood … we need dingoes in our environment to balance out the food chain.
“But people need to know how to prevent aggression or an attack, because I don’t want to see another fatality there.”
He revealed he is currently halfway through filming a dingo documentary on K’gari, focussing on the animal’s conservation status as well as the Butchulla’s perspective of how the island can be better looked after.
While K’gari is a stunning place to visit, the conservationist said there were obvious risks and dangerous aspects involved.
“I am pleading with people, if you are going to go on K’gari please use your common sense: watch the tide, be aware, be dingo safe,” he said.
“Sometimes when holidays come, common sense goes completely out the window.
“No one should ever interact with a dingo because they can not only be extremely territorial, they can be every aggressive and have a bite force of about 1500 per square inch (PSI).”
He said the island’s dingoes have been faced with several threats over the years.
“We’ve had 4WDers chasing dingoes down,” he said.
“We’ve had people picking the pups up and a few years ago we had someone who was suspected to be baiting 1080 (poison) there.
“Issues like these will continue to happen without more education on the dingo.
“Education is the best way for a future generation.”
Last month, Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers on K’gari also rescued a dingo from a crab pot (pictured).
“A juvenile wongari was stuck inside a crab pot in the mangroves with a large mud crab, and both were distressed,” ranger-in-charge Dr Linda Behrendorff said.
“Against the rising tide, the ranger was able to open the crab pot and rescue the wongari.
“The dingo hurried off to rejoin his pack, and it is extremely lucky to have been rescued instead of drowning in the crab pot when the tide came in.
“It is not known if the crab pot belonged to a recreational or commercial fisher.”
Looking ahead, the Travelling Bushman said he would like to conduct an educational dingo and broader wildlife tour on K’gari in the future.
Tips on how to stay dingo safe on K’gari
- Supervise your children.
- Camp in the designated fenced camping areas if you have young children.
- Don’t leave food scraps of any type around.
- If you are going to explore, go on a guided tour with an expert.
- Don’t feed the dingoes.
- Don’t interact with dingoes.
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