A local mayor has described the escalating aggression of dingoes on K’gari as police await a post-mortem examination on the body of a Canadian teenager found on the beach yesterday morning.

The 19-year-old woman told friends and colleagues at a backpackers’ hostel where she worked that she was going for a swim about 5 am.

Two men later found her body with significant injuries surrounded by a pack of up to a dozen dingoes near Orchid Beach, north of Maheno Wreck.

 

 

The woman was found near Orchid Beach, north of the island. (Nine)

Police hope a post-mortem examination on the body, scheduled for tomorrow, will help determine whether the woman died as a result of drowning or being mauled by dingoes.

Local Fraser Coast mayor George Seymour told Today this morning the woman’s death was a “shocking tragedy”.

He said it had been 25 years since the last fatal dingo attack on the island, but there had been “an escalation of aggressive dingo activity” in recent years.

A nine-year-old boy was fatally mauled by dingoes in 2001.

Most of the attacks by dingoes on humans since then have also been on young children.

“A big part of what (the rangers) do is to try and separate dingoes from humans, but we’re continuing to have this situation of dingoes, and in some ways there will inevitably be a fatality, given how many bites and attacks are happening over the years.”

Rangers put up a sign warning of dingoes in the wake of the Canadian woman’s death. (Nine)

He said dingoes were an essential part of the island’s World Heritage wilderness.

“We can’t just keep chipping away at all the natural things,” he said.

“People go there partly because of the dingoes, because of the whole experience, and our community is very attached to the island and its wilderness.

“And to very sensibly manage it, wholesale, you know, these wild animals into little pens wouldn’t fix it.

“Ultimately, we have to respect that this is a wilderness.

“People go there to be in a wilderness and, you know, there are risks.”

Police are investigating the death and said they could not be certain of the woman’s cause of death. (Nine)

Wide Bay District Inspector Paul Algie yesterday said it was a “very dramatic and horrific scene”.

Algie confirmed the dingoes had bitten the woman’s body, but could not say what the exact cause of death was.

“I can confirm there were markings on her body consistent with having been touched and interfered with by the dingoes.”

The woman’s body has been transferred to mainland Queensland for examination tomorrow.

Police are working to get in contact with the woman’s family in Canada.

The woman had been working with a friend from Canada at a backpackers’ on K’gari for the past six weeks.

Wide Bay District Inspector Paul Algie speaking to reporters yesterday. (Nine)

Algie said her friend has been left “extremely traumatised”.

He added that police were also “traumatised” and that this incident would have widespread impacts on the entire community.

“They are absolutely horrified and shocked at what’s occurred,” he said.

“We are acutely aware of how deeply this impacts not only the community that lives on K’gari, but also the many, many thousands of people that visit there each year.”

K’gari locals and visitors are advised to stay away and not to interact with dingoes.

“Dingoes are wild animals, and whilst they are very culturally and significant to the local First Nations people and to the people that live on the island, they are still wild animals and need to be treated as such,” Algie said.