A small, multidisciplinary project in the disciplines of environmental humanities, environmental sociology, communication, geography and geo-spatial science has just been funded by DSTIA.

The project, entitled ‘The Iconic Dingo: valuing their future on K’gari-Fraser Island’ aims to interpret existing K’Gari-Fraser Island visitor and human-dingo interaction data provided by QPWS partners as a guide to gathering new data on the way various stakeholders and interests value and expect to interact with dingoes.

These interactions between people and dingoes on K’gari-Fraser Island will be mapped in spatial layers to locate points of conflict in relation to key dingo habitat and visitor management sites.

The way different sectors value dingoes, make management initiatives challenging (Archer-Lean et al 2015) with a clear need to understand how public and private agencies communicate messages about the dingo to all stakeholders and how stakeholders receive and act on those messages.

What values do you place on the Fraser Island dingo?

This research identifies socio-cultural values that underpin planning for communications and will make recommendations for human-dingo experiences that are compliant with QPWS Dingo Management Strategy and World Heritage listing.

The team includes a range of expertise from literature and humanities, social science, spatial science and communications including  Angela Wardell-Johnson (Environmental Sociology) who is on the Qld Government Biodiversity Partnership and Fraser Island Dingo Working Group and academic staff from the University of the Sunshine Coast, including Clare Archer-Lean (Literature, Environmental Humanities, Critical Human Animal Studies), Jen Carter (Geography), Umi Khattab (PR, Media Studies and Communication) and Yoko Shimizu (Spatial Science).

The team plan to meet with the various interest groups including FINIA group members, Butchulla Traditional Owners and other Indigenous interests through targeted consultation.

The expertise of FINIA members and those with interests on the Island are crucial in realising the research goals. For further information please contact: Dr Clare Archer-Lean carcher@usc.edu.au.

Dr Chair Archer-Lean, University of the Sunshine Coast