Boy bitten by dingo on K’gari at camping ground

A dingo has attacked and bitten a five-year-old boy on his arms and legs on K’gari at the weekend.

A Sunshine Coast helicopter was deployed to airlift the injured boy from the popular tourist island, formerly known as Fraser Island, to Hervey Bay Hospital.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the boy was bitten at the Ocean Lake Camp Ground, on the northern end of the island.

“He has multiple bites to his arms and around the back of his legs,” the spokeswoman said.

The boy’s father was nearby and able to stop the attack near the remote Ocean Lake camping area.

Park rangers said the boy had not provoked the dingo and would investigate to identify the animal involved.

The incident was reported to ambulance crews about 4.10pm by the boy’s parents.

There are now about 200 dingoes on K’gari.

One person has died from a dingo attack on the island, although bites to humans from the native predator are not common.

In 2001, nine-year-old Clinton Gage was attacked and killed by two dingoes near Waddy Point.

His death prompted first a dingo cull and in 2013 a dingo management strategy.

Dingoes are no longer culled on the island and high-risk animals are shifted away from tourism hotspots.