Deborah Rundle claims that in June 2018 she was eating lunch in a barbeque area of Western Australia’s Telfer gold mine when a dingo “jumped up” and snatched her phone, according to a statement her lawyer supplied to ABC.
It’s unclear what attracted the animals to Rundle’s phone, but the presence of the device seems to have set off a chain of events which led to the woman being attacked.
She followed the animal in an attempt to retrieve the phone, before being confronted by a group of the wild dogs who were apparently not happy to see her.
“I stepped forward to pick up my phone but saw the dingoes looking at me,” Rundle told ABC. “I started to back away, facing them, when they attacked me… they grabbed at my arms and legs while I screamed for help.”
Rundle worked as a security guard the Telfer site, which is located in the Great Sandy Desert. She is suing Newcrest Mining, owner of the mine. In addition to post traumatic stress, she claims to have suffered “horrific” injuries in the attack, including a bite which left her ankle bone exposed and another leaving a hole in her arm.
“The dingoes ate a hole in my right arm just below the elbow and tore at my right leg and my wrist,” said Rundle.
The injuries are said to have caused extensive scarring and long term damage to her ability to move her arms and legs. Rundle also says she experiences recurring nightmares related to the incident.
Rundle and her lawyer believe the incident was preventable. Dingoes have been spotted “hanging around” the site in uncomfortably large numbers by employees, according to WAtoday.
“This tragic incident was foreseeable and everyone understands the dangers of allowing wild dingoes on site,” said Alex Ilich, Rundle’s lawyer. “It is inexcusable that Newcrest had a complete disregard for the safety of workers.”
Mick Buchan, an official with the trade union CFMEU, told ABC that the anti-dingo safety measures the company implemented after the attack were inadequate. Buchan says that building a fence would have been a sensible first response to the incident, but says the company instead offered a supply of “dingo sticks” to deter the animals.
“[Dingo sticks] were placed around the camp in these red wheelie bins explaining the danger of the dingoes and if you see one, grab a dingo stick and just shoo it away. Photos that we saw after that, were of dingoes chewing dingo sticks from the camp,” said Buchan.
“To come up with dingo sticks as a first line of defence, and then to have to be lobbied into putting fences up, that was outrageous. I hope we never see a repeat of a worker… having to go through the same trauma that’s occurred here.”
Dingoes became the subject of worldwide media attention after the 1980 dingo-related death of Azaria Chamberlain, a 2-month-old baby. Although the phrase “a dingo ate my baby” has been attributed to the girl’s mother, Lindy Chamberlain, she is believed to have actually exclaimed “a dingo took my baby” when one of the animals dragged the child away from the family’s tent during a camping trip near Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock.
Police did not believe the story, and the girl’s parents were prosecuted and convicted of her murder. They were released years later, after evidence suggested the woman was telling the truth. A coroner eventually declared that a dingo did in fact kill the child.
In addition to the Telfer mine incident, there have been a number of reported dingo attacks in recent times. Fraser Island, which is a popular tourist destination off the coast of Queensland, has been the site of multiple cases in 2019. The Australian government announced an “urgent review” of the situation after a man pulled his 14-month-old son from the jaws of a dingo in April.
Although dingoes do pose a potential threat to humans, they generally do not interact with people. Incidences of the dogs being attracted to or attempting to take phones from people are almost unheard of, and attacks are relatively rare.
