by Maxine McGregor

How does a quietly spoken, shy woman, with an enormous capacity to love and a tireless dedication to animals find herself fall foul of the law and facing a three year prison sentence?

It all began as a love affair, when Jennifer fell under the spell of the Fraser Island dingoes. This unique line of dingoes is widely believed to be one of the last pure breed of dingoes left on the eastern coast of Australia, having been isolated on their Island and not subjected to cross breeding with domestic dogs.

For Jennifer Parkhurst this was the start of a beautiful love story, but like so many other love stories, it ends in tragedy, betrayal and heartache.

Jennifer grew up in Victoria,went to NSW to work as a whale watch tour guide, and eventually moved to Tin Can Bay to work with the dolphins. She me the Fraser dingoes quite by accident after jumping on a Fraser Island barge one day. There she had her first sighting of the dingoes and was instantly enthralled by their beauty and tenacity. As an avid and talented wildlife photographer and artist, she saw a great opportunity and was impelled to learn more about their behaviour and habits and to record them on film and canvas.

Thus began an experience and journey no-one could have predicted, least of all Jennifer herself.

When asked, knowing now where this journey would lead, would she do it again? Jennifer very honestly answers, she is not sure, however she regrets nothing except, maybe, a natural human failing of trusting someone who is not worthy of that trust.

Jennifer's life soon revolved around her passion for the dingoes, rising at 4.30am every morning to catch the first barge to the Island, so she could meet up with the dingoes as they performed their daily ritual of patrolling the beach.

The dingoes quickly accepted her presence, as she was never afraid and treated them with absolute respect which allowed them to go about their normal activities, with Jennifer sitting quietly by and observing their most intimate moments.

Fraser Island dingoes have a history of human interaction, beginning with the Butchu people, the native Aboriginal tribe, who are the original owners of K'Gari, or "Paradise," (Fraser Island) as they called it.

The dingo was an integral part of the Aboriginals' life, as a source of companionship and protection.

Butchulla women breastfed dingo puppies and the children used to play with them.

When adult members in the tribe would leave on hunting expeditions, some dingoes were left at the campsite to watch over the young and the elderly because it was believed that when strangers approached, that dingoes could sense good from evil.

So it was that Jennifer was allowed to become an accepted member of the dingo family, in the tradition of Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall. She began observing the dingoes in their native setting and acquiring information never before recorded.

Over a period of time Jennifer became alarmed at the number of pups dying, it appeared to her to be a 90% mortality rate and they were dying of starvation. At this point she began to perceive her job was to record this information, but not to interfere.

Jennifer began to notice a connection between the common practice of ear tagging the puppies and their slow decline; the ears would droop, making their hunting abilities ineffectual as they could not hear properly to locate the source of their prey. Following this they would begin the slow, agonising death of starvation.

Jennifer initially had a fairly amicable rapport with the rangers on the Island, until she wrote an article condemning the use of ear tags on puppies, then began an extremely lengthy, drawn out war with the rangers and the Department of Environment and Resources (DERM), who employed them.

Jennifer's concern for the starving dingoes drove her to apply for autopsy reports on the dead dingoes, through the Freedom of Information Act. This further fuelled the rising animosity towards her by DERM and the rangers.

After reading the reports Jennifer's anxiety was heightened, as in one report of a three month old pup that had been shot, it showed the animal to be in poor condition, having sand, grass and tin foil in its stomach contents.

Another autopsy report stated the cause of death to be "rifle-it is", another stated "½ ounce of lead", which showed a cruel and callous mentality, to the culling of dingoes, by the rangers.

The Butchulla people welcomed Jennifer's involvement and dedication to the dingoes, giving her the Aboriginal name "Naibar Wongari Yeeran", which translates to "Our Sister Dingo Woman". They too were worried about the decline in numbers of one of their totem animals, the dingo, and felt powerless to save them as the authorities refused to listen or discuss dingo management with them.

Well known researchers and conservationists were also alarmed at the emaciated condition of the dingoes and their fall in numbers. They applauded Jennifer for her efforts in trying to bring attention to this iconic animal and for providing detailed information, currently unheard of through conventional methods.

In 2003 Jennifer came across rangers setting traps for the dingoes atop a sandy dune. They were cruel looking devices and, when questioned, the rangers assured her that the rubber covering on the jaws would protect the dingoes from harm.

Jennifer was sceptical of this explanation and asked them to demonstrate by putting their own arm in the trap and set it off, to which the rangers declined.

The authorities tried to slander Jennifer's efforts, purporting that she must be feeding the dingoes to be allowed in such close proximity to them. Jennifer always strongly denied these allegations as she felt her own integrity would be compromised if she employed such methods and wanted to prove the dingoes could be studied with non-invasive methods.

Jennifer spent every day for seven years, with her beloved dingoes, which cost her around $15.000 a year for fuel and vehicle maintenance.

As she was not working per se, the money was obtained through fund raising and sponsorship.

A local Real Estate agency hired her to do photography, listing cards and listing publications online and in return paid for her fuel and car maintenance.

Jennifer's day would start at 4.30 am, so she could arrive on the beach before sunrise, where she would spend several hours with the dingoes, although some days were spent trudging through the bush for four to five hours, non-stop, without actually encountering a dingo. This was extremely hard work and every day she would emerge with cuts, bites and abrasions from the dense lantana and insects in the bush.

On her drive home, Jennifer was appalled at the rubbish left scattered on the beach, and not being able to drive past and do nothing, she would spend several hours picking it up and taking it back to the mainland tip.

What was left of her afternoon was spent networking and writing reports about the welfare of the dingoes, trying to raise awareness for their situation.

Her evenings were taken up with working on her book "Vanishing Icon, The Fraser Island Dingo", which meant her days were full with not much time left for sleep.

Jennifer found herself increasingly at odds with the park rangers and, more troubling, with the residents of Rainbow Beach and the Island. She found herself hated wherever she went and the people were suspicious of her motives. Undaunted, though stressed, Jennifer continued her campaign to improve conditions for the much maligned dingoes.

The rangers started doing everything in their power to try and stop her from going to the Island. They constantly harassed her, refused to renew her vehicle permit, performed vehicle checks and fined her for trivial misdemeanours, anything to make life unpleasant for her.

They had the barge operators inform them as soon as she arrived, and nine times out of ten, within 20 minutes, there would be a ranger following her over on the barge and more driving down the beach at Eurong, so at any time she could be ambushed.

They constantly trailed her, following her tyre tracks and footprints, so they could track her into the bush. They left traps along the tracks to ascertain where she had been and generally made her life miserable.

In 2007 Jennifer met and formed a personal relationship with Adam Randall. This fateful union would ultimately cause her downfall.

Adam became very interested in Jennifer's work on the island and would join her on her treks to observe and photograph the dingoes. The pups were yet again showing signs of deterioration and Adam encouraged her to feed them, saying "We can't let this happen, we can't let them suffer," as he knew how distressing it was for Jennifer to watch them die.

Jennifer takes full responsibility for the events following this conversation, although it went against everything she believed in and she knew it was the wrong thing to do.

Initially they collected coconuts for the dingoes, one of their natural food sources, and place piles of them in the bush for the dingoes to eat. But it was Adam who bought the "non-native" (meat) food and Adam who fed them, more times than Jennifer.

At Christmas the dingoes were treated to roast chicken and dried pigs' ears, a delicacy they had not previously enjoyed, and so for a short time they experienced a generosity formerly unknown to them.

Jennifer's antagonists smear her name, saying she fed the dingoes all along, however Jennifer swears to this day that no photos were taken by bribing the dingoes with food. Feeding the dingoes was a completely separate issue, done out of anguish and compassion, and after six years of watching them die a horrible and excruciatingly painful death of starvation. This was borne out in court, as the earliest charges against Jennifer were only after her relationship with Adam commenced.

Eventually Jennifer and Adam's relationship came to an end and Jennifer requested that Adam leave her life. Adam complied, but Jennifer was to soon learn the hardest lesson of her life, the bitterness and wrath of a vengeful ex-boyfriend.

Increasingly at odds with the rangers, who strongly suspected her of illegally feeding the dingo pack, Jennifer was rudely awakened in the early hours on August 25th 2009 by a police officer and five DERM officials with a search warrant to search her premises.

For six long hours they poured through her possessions and files. Finally they left, taking with them her photographs and video footage of the dingoes, her computer and all her files related to the dingoes, her journal and field notes, the ninety autopsy reports she had obtained through Freedom of Information, the book she was writing on the dingoes and even photos of her own dog, "K9,"who had died shortly before the raid.

They left her feeling shaken and confused, she felt as if she had been violated and had nowhere to turn, no one to trust.

Over the next thirteen months Jennifer would be subjected to a persecution unheard of in this country. Stripped of her belongings and exposed to a scare campaign, levelled at her to keep her quiet, she believed she was enduring a living hell and contemplated suicide on several occasions.

It was only the love and compassion for her beautiful dingoes which kept her going, as she refused to give up the fight to save them.

There was never any evidence to back up this theory and Jennifer believes they were destroyed purely because the rangers, and the department, didn't like her and knew this result would devastate her.

Adam, who had blown the whistle on Jennifer, even though it was he who had instigated the whole feeding fiasco, was to stand trial on a number of charges related to feeding and disturbing dingoes in the Great Sandy National Park, (Fraser Island,) between July 2008 and August 2009.

The case was heard at Maryborough Magistrates Court on November 3^rd 2010.

Jennifer pleaded guilty to some charges and received a $40,000 fine and a nine month prison sentence suspended for three years, not for feeding the dingoes, but for "interfering" with them. The magistrate, John Smith, referred to the nature of her offence saying "She had engaged in a covert campaign over a long period and had sought to hide her offending from rangers."

This same magistrate sat as the coroner on the Clinton Gage inquest, where a young boy was killed by dingoes, on Fraser Island in 2001, which showed a blatant bias.

Adam was only fined $2,500 with no prison sentence.

This whole case screams of a miscarriage of justice, Jennifer was undoubtedly used as a scape goat by the Department of Environment and Resources, for her activist movement to change the present management and treatment of Island dingoes. Their whole concern was to shut her up, but in doing so have only brought attention to themselves and their management strategy, which clearly, is not working.

The Gestapo like tactics which have been used, should make us ashamed, as Australians, to stand back and allow this to happen.

Jennifer's error was to be misled by an alleged loved one. Who amongst us can say we have never been guilty of the same?

Yet for this innocent mistake she has been persecuted and driven to the brink of suicide.

Jennifer continues her battle with authorities to improve conditions for the island dingoes and has formed a group called Save Fraser Island Dingoes, which is funded, in part, by sales of her book, "Vanishing Icon," also by donations, sales of SFID merchandise and raffles.

SFID is currently contesting the use of tracking collars on the dingoes which are too heavy and cumbersome around the animals' necks. These collars impede their movement through the bush and restrict female dingoes in birthing and caring for their young.

The use of the offensive, so called, SOFT jaw leg traps, is still ongoing, when a simple dart gun would be a much more humane method to apply.

Another highly contentious issue is the use of Valabarb to euthanize dingoes. This drug is administered straight into the heart, without anaesthetic, by unqualified rangers who can take several attempts to hit the right spot. Veterinarians have condemned this method, stating it is both cruel and inhumane to put an animal down in this way.

The sheer number of tourists on the Island also poses a risk to the dingoes, with ridiculous speed limits of 80km in place on the beaches. This is not only dangerous for the dingoes, but for the families with young children, walking and playing on the beach.

Documents released to SFID, under the Freedom of Information act, shows 14% of male dingoes being autopsied by DERM, had been killed by a vehicle strike.

The SFID is currently running a petition to submit to Parliament, requesting the House to cease all experimentation on the Fraser Island Dingoes including: culling, trapping, collaring, hazing and ear-tagging. They wish to undertake an independent scientific peer review of the current management strategy and establish an Advisory Committee to oversee the humane and ethical treatment of the dingoes; Undertake a scientific population study of wildlife on the Island; Ensure that rangers responsible for dingo management are suitably qualified biologists with a knowledge and understanding of dingo behaviour; Establish an Interpretive Centre to educate and inform visitors regarding the natural attractions of Fraser Island and correct behaviour when encountering a dingo; Establish a Care Centre for sick or injured animals, and ensure a continued independent monitoring of all management plans implemented.

According to Parkhurst, "One person's passion can ignite a nation, we do not choose our path, passion takes us." Jennifer's story has been televised by the ABC's Australian Story and generated a huge outcry at the injustice to not only her, but to our iconic dingoes. DERM has had to hire full time staff to deal with the influx of complaints it has to deal with, every day, from the general public.

Surely this must tell them something, a change of strategy is needed, and soon. Dingo numbers on Fraser Island are at an all-time low, many experts believe the Island dingo to be on the brink of extinction and the loss of this magnificent creature would be detrimental to the Island's ecology.

There is also the question of the legacy we will leave behind for generations to come... will the Fraser Island dingo be another picture in a text book, of an animal made extinct by a country putting tourism and the almighty dollar above the value of our precious wildlife?

Story by Maxine McGregor Artwork by Jennifer Parkhurst

http://savefraserislanddingoes.com

http://www.fraserislandfootprints.com