Newcrest Mining Limited to pay more than $100k in damages for camp dingo attack at Pilbara Telfer Mine site

Newcrest mining will pay up to $111,255 in damages after a woman suffered serious injuries during an attack by dingoes on her lunch break at its Pilbara Telfer Mine site. The company has today received a fine of $105,000 and was ordered to pay $6255 in damages to contractor Debbie Rundle following the July 2018 incident. Ms Rundle was eating a sandwich outside a barbecue area at the mine site when she waved down a dingo that had jumped on a table before moving to sit on a nearby grassed area. She proceeded to take a photograph of the animal before feeling another sniff her body. After a third dingo arrived, Ms Rundle placed her food in the bin, leaving her mobile phone on the table alongside a napkin. The employee soon noticed one of the dingoes had seized her phone, before dropping it near a hedge. When she went to retrieve the device she was attacked by two of the animals. Her screams alerted a fellow employee who came to assist before she was transferred to Port Hedland Health Campus by the Royal Flying Doctor Service and then to Royal Perth Hospital. She was treated for serious lacerations and wound to multiple parts of her body and was later diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. Speaking from her hospital bed after the incident, Ms Rundle said she was grateful for the help of her colleague as the attack came as a surprise. “I looked down and though am I going to die, am I going to go down,” she said. “(I was) very lucky. It was amazing, I was so grateful that they came to my rescue. “They latched on and they were munching. I was screaming out for help. There was blood everywhere on the ground.” Ms Rundle said she is permanently scarred from the attack and has been left unable to work because of on-going pain. “It would have been easier if the dogs would have just killed me for the things that have been said to me (for) how my body looks now, the scars,” she told 7NEWS on Thursday night. Ms Rundle claims she has not received any compensation for the attack and blasted the fine handed to her former employer. “It's just crazy. . . $105,000 is a drop in the ocean to them,” she said. Mines Safety acting director Sally North said all workers should feel safe and secure on site. “Employees must ensure their staff members are not only safe in their work roles but in the accommodation associated with mining operations,” she said. “There have been several incidents recorded at Telfer, including four others where staff members were bitten.” Since the incident, the company has installed fencing and has removed rubbish bins to more secure locations. It will also begin facilitating education session and reinforce safety measures surrounding wildlife in the area.