THE FIRST SAFETY message Brett,[i] one of our tour guides, delivered was about wearing seatbelts. The second was about dingoes. ‘If you see a dingo, do not crouch down. Remain upright. Take only photos, walk back to the group. They are native here on Fraser Island and they are dangerous.’

The all-terrain bus climbed up the hill from the Kingfisher Bay Resort on a sealed road and careered down the track on the other side. Sitting at the front, I was alert – half thrilled, half apprehensive – to the way Brett manoeuvred the vehicle down the hill so wildly; the engine was excited too, whirring with what sounded to me like high revs. Perhaps tourists are foolish to trust the expertise of their guides. Or perhaps that is one of the appeals of being a tourist – childlike relinquishing of decision-making, curtailment of agency, simple trust in someone else’s authority.