Island's Rangers `aware Of Duty'
Newcastle Herald
Tuesday May 1, 2001
QUEENSLAND'S Environment Minister has defended park rangers over claims they had ignored reports of dingo attacks on Fraser Island, where wild dogs killed a boy yesterday.
The Fraser Island Defence Organisation said in its 1999 response to a government inquiry into a dingo management strategy that more concern was needed concerning dingo attacks on humans.
The organisation said that in 1996 a woman who had been visiting Fraser Island for some 30 years was attacked by a dingo on a beach.
`She reported it to the Eurong Visitors Centre to a completely disinterested (sic) staff and she is not even sure that any record was made of her report,' the organisation said in a 1999 submission to the Government.
The submission said rangers had turned a blind eye to dingo feeding even though it was against the law and attracted fines of up to $1400.
Environment Minister Dean Wells said he believed the dingo management strategy was working well and rangers were well aware of their responsibilities.
He said the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service had prosecuted one of its own staff in the past 12 months for feeding dingoes.
Information on dingoes was distributed to visitors and tourism operators as recently as March.
`In the past year a number of dingoes have been culled for showing dangerous habits and about 40 animals have been culled over the past decade, which supports our assertion that we haven't been turning a blind eye,' Mr Wells said.
© 2001 Newcastle Herald
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