“It is so sad and devastating when any wild dingo is killed on Wooleen and this loss is a whole new level of devastation.

“Steve and Eulalia ... had all the luxuries of captivity, being fed and being loved by all of us. They also got to roam free, and I wouldn’t take that back. There is some level of comfort knowing they had such an amazing life.”

In the caption of the video Jestrimski wrote that for 10 years, there had been an active bounty system for the killing of dingoes in the Murchison Shire, and called on the Shire to end it.

Frances Pollock has started a petition on change.org also calling for an end to the Shire’s dingo bounty.

Speaking with this masthead, Pollock said the deaths were not just a personal loss, but a loss to the greater education on the narrative around dingoes.

“From what happened to the Chamberlains, to how they are portrayed on Fraser Island, and the agricultural industry branding them as wild dogs that need to be persecuted – there’s so many misconceptions around dingoes,” she said.

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“All we are here to do, is to not only highlight the importance of having them in the landscape, but make people realise they’re not something to be feared.

“We don’t need to fear them, we just need to understand how to live with them and to respect they have a place here too.”

Before bringing Eulalia and Steve onto the property, David and Frances had been co-existing with wild dingoes without lethal controls in place for more than 15 years.

“We’ve proven that we can have livestock and actively have a wild dingo population while also increasing the biodiversity on the ground,” Frances said.

“We really strongly believe in what we’re doing, we’re watching it work.

“We want to ramp this education piece up higher because there’s a real story in this about how we can find balance for humans and dingoes to live a more harmonious life.”

The Murchison Shire have been contacted for comment.

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