{"id":248930,"date":"2026-01-24T03:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T03:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248930\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T03:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T03:29:12","slug":"canadian-family-launches-fundraiser-for-teen-who-died-on-aus-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248930\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian family launches fundraiser for teen who died on Aus holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

A grieving Canadian family is preparing to travel to Australia to bring their daughter home after her death at an iconic tourist destination.<\/p>\n

Backpacker Piper James, 19, was working on Queensland’s K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, when she went for an early morning swim on Monday.<\/p>\n

Her body was discovered<\/a> surrounded by dingoes near a popular tourist site, the wreck of the SS Maheno, a short time later.<\/p>\n

Preliminary autopsy results found physical evidence consistent with drowning.<\/p>\n

However, it also found evidence of “pre-mortem” dingo bites, raising the possibility that Ms James attempted to escape the pack by fleeing into the surf.<\/p>\n

There were extensive post-mortem bite marks.<\/p>\n

\"K'Gari,<\/p>\n

K’Gari, previously Fraser Island. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

The coroner is now awaiting pathology results to further assist in determining the cause of death, a process expected to take several weeks.<\/p>\n

Ms James’ father Todd told the Canadian Press that he hoped his daughter had succumbed to the surf, considering the alternative.<\/p>\n

“We know her body was messed with (by) dingoes. It’s one or the other,” he told the Press on Friday, citing the possibility of drowning.<\/p>\n

“We’ve just got to wait, and it could be one to two months.”<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the family shared a GoFundMe page to raise money to bring their daughter home. It had raised almost NZ$7000 by Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Mr James and his wife Angela, Piper’s mother, have also been invited to a smoking ceremony by the Butchulla people, K’gari’s traditional custodians, which he said they hoped to attend.<\/p>\n

Global Affairs Canada has said officials were providing consular assistance to the family.<\/p>\n

In an earlier social media tribute, Mr James said the family would always remember his daughter’s infectious laugh and kind spirit, and her determination to go after her dreams.<\/p>\n

Ms James had been living and working at a backpackers on K’gari with a friend from Canada for about six weeks.<\/p>\n

Rangers increased patrols across the island following the tragedy, which came just weeks after a warning about aggressive dingo behaviour near where Ms James was found.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Dingo on K’Gari. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Rangers warned of “heightened dingo activity” in the area where Ms James died only weeks before the tragedy, after reports of wild dogs ripping tents, approaching campers and stealing food and property.<\/p>\n

The warning remains in place on K’gari for the summer holiday period until January 31.<\/p>\n

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has ruled out restrictions on visitor numbers to K’gari, the world’s largest sand island.<\/p>\n

The Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation and environmental groups have been calling for a cap on tourists, due to mounting safety concerns and damage to the World Heritage site’s fragile environment.<\/p>\n

Dingoes are culturally significant to the Butchulla people, who know them by the traditional name wongari.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A grieving Canadian family is preparing to travel to Australia to bring their daughter home after her death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-248930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}