Clare Archer-Lean

The dingoes on K'gari-Fraser Island are iconic, earning their status through being apex predators within the ecology of the Island and through deep-time associations with the Indigenous Australian traditional owners (Daniels & Corbett 2003; Smith & Litchfield 2009). The perception of their status as symbols of 'wild Australia' holds cultural significance to visitors (Hytten 2007) and this value is exploited by the local tourist industry. At the same time, long-established debates over responses to dingo-human incidents remain unresolved, with ongoing vexed media representation of current management strategies (Grewal 2015; Perets 2016). The system of human values that frames human interactions is twofold: the dingo is visible and interacting with human beings, yet wild and therefore dangerous. This tension is the reason for this research. The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) is vested with responsibility for managing human-dingo interactions, and this report provides insights into the way different sectors value dingoes and how communication on safety is applied by people on the Island. This report provides a review of diverse literature with insights from international perspectives on similar park situations. The research includes a qualitative, thematic analysis of visitor survey and stakeholder focus groups to offer new perspective and insights into issues that frame communication of Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service's (QPWS) dingo-safe1 message. QPWS has commissioned numerous reports and reviews of various issues concerning dingo management to provide a well-established knowledge of the K'gari-Fraser Island context. While this report draws on previous reviews, it provides new insights drawn from evidence-based research with concrete potential for application.