Sister saves baby from dingo

2004-11-10 08:10

Brisbane - A mother described on Wednesday how her 14-week-old baby girl was stalked by a dingo and saved by her five-year-old sister from attack in an incident reminiscent of the attack on baby Azaria Chamberlain, who vanished 24 years ago.

Georgia Corke was alone in a hotel room with her baby sister Scarlett on Fraser Island off the Queensland coast of north-eastern Australia last Friday when the native wild dog entered the room, coming dangerously close to the baby.

Georgia stepped in front of the animal and began screaming for help from her parents, who were in the bathroom of the Kingfisher Bay eco-tourism resort which often has dingoes wandering through the grounds.

Three years ago, a nine-year-old boy was mauled to death on the same island by a dingo in an attack seen by many as the first real evidence after the mysterious disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain that the dingo is a serious threat, capable of killing children.

'It stood its ground'

Azaria's mother Lindy Chamberlain was initially charged and jailed for murder before being released when new evidence emerged backing her insistence that a dingo took her baby.

Scarlett's mother Belinda Corke told ABC radio her family had a lucky escape because of Georgia's defence of her baby sister.

"I was in the bathroom cleaning my teeth," Mrs Corke said.

"I'd just been out to the verandah to collect our swimming things to go down to breakfast and my husband was about to get in the shower.

"So we were both in the bathroom and I'd left the patio doors slightly ajar.

"I heard my five-year-old daughter starting to scream when I was in the bathroom but at first I just thought she was messing about and I didn't immediately run out.

"Then my husband heard her shouting 'dingo, dingo'. We ran into the bedroom expecting to find the dingo out on the road or nearby, but not in the hotel room which it was.

"We had our three-month-old baby lying on the bed and Georgia was standing in front of her very bravely. The dingo was about two-feet away from the baby.

"It was quite nasty. It stood its ground too. My husband had to really stamp his feet and run at it and 'shoo, shoo' and clap his hands together to get it out of the room."

Corke says she did not know whether the dingo would have attacked her baby or her older daugher. "It was very close to them, looking at them both," she said.

"The whole thing was over in a minute or two but if neither of us were in the room that would have been pretty awful."

Fraser Island, which attracts thousands of eco-tourists each year, has a large population of pure bred-dingoes.

- AFP