The dingo (Canis lupus dingo) is an Asian wolf that evolved around 6,000-10,000 years ago and became widespread throughout southern Asia. Asian seafarers introduced dingoes into Indonesia, Borneo, Philippines, New Guinea, Madagascar and other islands including Australia some 5,000 years ago. Dingoes eventually spread across the entire Australian mainland, assisted by the Aborigines who had arrived in Australia at least 15 millennia earlier. Aborigines used dingoes to hunt game, especially kangaroos, wallabies and possums. Some Aboriginal tribes adopted the dingo as their totem, and several dreamtime stories and corroborees are centred on the dingo.
HOW
IT USED TO BE
"Dingos and Aborigines coexisted on Fraser Island for
thousands of years before European contact with no apparent conflict.
If dingos were seen as a threat to Aborigines who were very numerous
on Fraser Island they would not have survived there."
by John Sinclair -
Dingos of Fraser island
"In 1975 I began a project, which I still continue, collecting oral and
other history of the first part of the 20th Century on Fraser Island
from people with long associations with it, including Aborigines.
Nobody ever suggested that dingos were a threat to human safety
and most said dingos on Fraser Island were a lot more numerous in
the past than they are now."
by John Sinclair - Dingos
of Fraser island
You will no longer see the local aboriginal
people "around
their camps with their habituated dingoes both eating and sharing
the same meals. A time when dingoes protected their young and the
infants. You will not experience sense of community that once existed
here."
by Fred Williams - Princess K'Gari's Fraser island
THE CHANGE
“Australia has the worst record of caring for our native animals. 20 (known) species have died out since Europeans arrived two centuries ago.“ Dingo Under Siege - channel 10
"Since 1991 Fraser Island has seen... destruction by management and policy...
the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) replaced the Forestry
Department and began immediately 'managing' (without mandate from
the majority of the people) the dingo. Abruptly withdrawing all of
the animals' historic food web on one hand disregarding researchers
warning of the loss of various flora and fauna, whilst on the other hand
allowing the
dingoes bodyweight to fall far below an acceptable 85% by deprivation
of food. Concurrently they withdrew human type feeding and developed
enforcement laws and fines for visitors who failed to bury fish offal
300mm into the sand."
by Fred Williams - Princess K'Gari's Fraser island
"...Aboriginal
elders (are) constantly lamenting the current unacceptable strategies
and actions of the present 'regime'... a
full scale dingo war with guns in the National Park and World Heritage
listed area as a tool of conservation management.“
by Fred Williams - Princess K'Gari's Fraser island
