Women Fined For Taking Selfies

The word ‘selfie,’ describing a self-portrait photograph, officially became a word in 2002 after appearing on an Australian online platform. However, two women have recently found themselves out of pocket for taking them.

It was recently reported that two female tourists in Australia were fined $2,300 AUD (£1,203) after they took what were described as ‘extremely dangerous’ selfies after the women posed alongside dingoes, writes the Daily Express.

Expensive Selfies

The two unnamed women were fined $2,300AUD (£1,203) each after they visited the island of K’gari, also known as Fraser Island, which lies just off the Queensland coast, in Australia. While there they took selfies alongside wild dingoes.

Dingoes found in the area of K’gari are known as ‘wongari,’ and are believed to be some of the last remaining ‘pure’ dingoes in Eastern Australia. Domestic dogs are not allowed on the island to prevent cross-breeding.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service compliance manager, Mike Devey, said: ‘Both women have made an extremely dangerous decision to interact with wongari and that’s why they have been fined.’

In one image, the 29-year-old tourist from New South Wales is shown laying down next to a pack of sleeping dingo pups

‘The woman has recklessly chosen to approach very closely to three sleeping wongari pups. She was lucky the mother of the pups wasn’t nearby.’

The other woman, a 25-year-old from Queensland appeared in a selfie video, later posted on social media that showed her with a growling dingo.

Devey added that the animal, ‘was clearly exhibiting dominance-testing behaviour. . . It is not playful behaviour. Wongari are wild animals and need to be treated as such, and the woman is lucky the situation did not escalate.’

Recent Dingo Attacks

This episode comes amid reports of recent attacks on humans by dingoes. On K’gari Island, a child was attacked by a dingo which ‘held her underwater for a few seconds,’ in April this year. And last month, a 23-year-old Brisbane woman, 23, suffered serious injuries after she was bitten more than 30 times.

Devey concluded: ‘Our number one priority is to keep people on K’gari safe and conserve the population of wongari, and those who blatantly ignore the rules for social media attention can expect a fine or a court appearance.’