{"id":532036,"date":"2026-01-21T11:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/532036\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T11:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:15:12","slug":"kgari-traditional-owners-raise-issues-with-dingo-management-after-teens-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/532036\/","title":{"rendered":"K’gari traditional owners raise issues with dingo management after teen’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Traditional owners will bless the area where a young woman died on K’gari amid their increasing frustration over dingo management on the world’s largest sand island.<\/p>\n

The body of Canadian tourist Piper James<\/a> was found surrounded by dingoes on a beach on the eastern side of the island on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

An autopsy was carried out on Wednesday to determine how the 19-year-old died.<\/p>\n

Late on Wednesday afternoon the Coroners Court said further scientific testing was required, which could take some time.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

There have been numerous incidents involving dingoes and tourist on K’gari. (Supplied: Bruno Saggin)<\/p>\n

The Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC) said Ms James’s death was a tragedy.<\/p>\n

“We wanted young Piper to leave with footprints of good memories to come back another day,” director Christine Royan said.<\/p>\n

Ms Royan said the traditional owners would carry out ceremonial activities to bless the area where the teenager died.<\/p>\n

She urged the community to refrain from blaming the dingoes, known as wongari in traditional language.<\/p>\n

Calls for action<\/p>\n

About 200 dingoes roam the World Heritage-listed island, according to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS).<\/p>\n

In 2001 Clinton Gage, nine, was attacked and killed by two dingoes on the island and there have been hundreds of high-risk or threatening incidents since.<\/p>\n

Ms Royan said while human interactions with the apex predators were increasing on K’gari, the state government was not taking responsibility for managing the situation.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to have a meeting with QPWS every week, we want action,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Christine Royan is calling for the government to urgently review dingo management on the island.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Nikki Sorbello)<\/p>\n

The organisation called for visitor numbers to be capped, including restrictions at particular times of year, and for more First Nations rangers to operate on the island.<\/p>\n

“Everyone should enjoy K’gari, but they need to come when it’s not the breeding season [March to May],” Ms Royan said.<\/p>\n

“The solution is not to punish the animal \u2026 what we need to do is look at better management.”<\/p>\n

The K’gari dingo population, recognised as one of the purest in Australia, has inhabited the island for thousands of years and plays a crucial role in the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Dingoes are protected in Queensland national parks and on K’gari the species is managed under the Fraser Island Conservation and Risk Management Strategy which is enforced by the QPWS.<\/p>\n

An independent review into the plan in 2021 found it was still fit for purpose and was comprehensively delivered.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Conway Burns says better education on dingo safety is essential. (ABC Wide Bay: Nikki Sorbello)<\/p>\n

But fellow BAC director Conway Burns said the wongari management plans were outdated and that tracking high-risk animals with GPS collars was not working.<\/p>\n

“We need to look at that really closely and incorporate our cultural processes and protocols,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We need to tell the story through Butchulla eyes \u2026 it’s very important to merge this into the management plan for dingoes.”<\/p>\n

Investigation continues<\/p>\n

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli acknowledged the tragedy of Ms James’s death while she was on the “trip of a lifetime” and said he would wait for the cause of death to be confirmed before looking at the next steps.<\/p>\n

He said he would not consider capping visitor numbers on the island.<\/p>\n

QPWS senior ranger Linda Behrendorff said management on the island was done in consultation with Butchulla people.<\/p>\n

“Our job is to mitigate the risk of wild and free-ranging animals to the visitors and the residents on K’gari,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Linda Behrendorff says more management is needed to prevent interactions between humans and dingoes. (ABC Wide Bay: Lucy Loram)<\/p>\n

Ms Behrendorff said most dingoes on the island belonged to packs and frequented areas visited by humans.<\/p>\n

“We have rangers in those areas all the time to make sure people understand their ‘Be Dingo Safe’ obligations,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not an easy task to try and mitigate risk in that human-wildlife interface \u2026 [it’s hard] wherever you have free-ranging wildlife and humans in the same arena.<\/p>\n

“It needs full management.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Traditional owners will bless the area where a young woman died on K’gari amid their increasing frustration over…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":532037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,235807,150655,178633,150656,235806,50,235805,235809,235808],"class_list":["post-532036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-dead-woman","tag-dingo","tag-fraser-island","tag-kgari","tag-kgari-death","tag-news","tag-piper-james","tag-tourist-death","tag-wongari"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115932806194540690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}