A recent rise in reports and images of domestic dogs on K’gari has prompted Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service along with concerned stakeholders to release media requests asking all visitors to leave their dogs at home when they visit World Heritage listed Fraser Island (K’gari).

The island is home to many rare and threatened native Australian animals including a healthy population of dingoes. Bringing domestic animals, including dogs and cats, onto Fraser Island (K’gari) without authorisation is illegal and can have far reaching impacts on native and migrating wildlife.

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Dingoes are territorial, actively defending their home range and hunting grounds from all intruders and having a dog on the island can increase the risk of a negative dingo interaction.  Domestic dogs may also have detrimental effects on the dingo population, besides increased hybridization through interbreeding, they can bring diseases and parasites that the dingoes may not been exposed to such as parvo virus, kennel cough and hydatids, which could have severe and lasting impacts on the closed-system population.

All visitors to Fraser Island (K’gari), including residents and those visiting by boat, should ensure that their dogs and cats do not visit at any time.  Domestic animals can cause significant damage to the natural environment by killing native and migrating fauna and spreading disease.  Under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 and Recreation Areas Management Act 2006 it is illegal for any person to bring or keep an animal onto Fraser Island (K’gari) without authority, and significant penalties apply.

For further information on Fraser Island (K’gari), go online www.npsr.qld.gov.au.

 Article and images contributed by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Great Sandy National Park