Tourism operators on Queensland's Fraser Island say they don't believe a dingo attack on a four-year-old girl will deter visitors, even though it almost mirrors an attack at the same place last year.
The girl was bitten on the thigh, buttocks and lower back as she played close to her father's vehicle on the beach near the Eurong township, on the island's east coast, yesterday afternoon.
She was treated by paramedics at the scene while a hunt began for the dingo responsible.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) spokesman Terry Harper said the attack would have been generated by people illegally feeding the animals, which caused them to approach people more often.
He said the animal, which had been identified but not yet found, would have to be humanely destroyed.
The potentially dangerous nature of the island's dingoes was highlighted in 2001 when nine-year-old Clinton Gage was mauled to death by two dingoes at Waddy Point, in the island's north-east.
Last September, another four-year-old girl was attacked by a dingo at Eurong in similar circumstances to yesterday's event.
Photographs which captured the 2006 incident showed the girl playing on the beach with her family before a dingo ran towards her and attacked.
She was rescued by her parents.
Another attack had occurred a month earlier at Happy Valley, north of Eurong, and, more recently, rangers had to put down a dingo which had been behaving aggressively around Eurong.
But tourism operators said dingoes went part and parcel with visiting the island and they did not expect tourist numbers to be affected by the latest attack.
Blair Hyland, who works at Eurong Beach Resort, close to where yesterday's attack occurred, said tourists did not appear to be particularly worried today.
"There was a news crew and stuff here but that's pretty much all that's happened," Ms Hyland said.
Ms Hyland said the attack was worrying, but most visitors understood dingoes were something they had to live with when they came to the island, and did not feed them.
"It is worrying ... it will happen every now and again but it's just a sad thing I guess," she said.
AAP