Hunter Allister during his recovery. Photo / Channel 9
Warning: Graphic image below
If little Hunter Allister hadn't cried out from the jaws of a dingo on Fraser Island, his sleeping parents may never have seen him alive again.
Hunter, then 14-months-old, had been snatched from a campervan several feet off the ground on the island popular with tourists off the Queensland coast.
He was being dragged by the back of the head by several native wild dogs when his dad sprang into action.
Luke Allister followed the screams into the pitch black night where the dingoes let the boy go only to surround the pair.
"He was looking at me while he was dragging him," Luke told 60 Minutes' Charles Wooley — the first time he's told the family's terrifying story since it unfolded in April.
Having picked up his son and felt "a lot of blood" on the back of his head, Luke says "a pack of them circled me".
"They were, the way I felt, trying to do a sneak attack and try to pull Hunter out from behind me. It was very dark.
"It was pitch black and they were circling. I have no idea how they even circled me. I think there were about four."
Luke raced back to the camper where Hunter's mum Sarah and Hunter's grandmother Shaurne were in hysterics.
A triple-0 call, played by 60 Minutes, revealed how frightened the family was.
"Ambulance, what's the town or suburb of the emergency," the operator says.
"We're on Fraser Island, in zone two. The dingo has dragged the baby from the campervan. It dragged him out of a campervan four feet off the ground."
Under lights, the family was able to assess the toddler's injuries. He had suffered multiple puncture wounds to the neck and skull and was flown to Hervey Bay then transferred to the Children's Hospital in Brisbane.
Sarah said the family were worried Hunter wouldn't survive.
"That's probably the strongest memory I have of that night," she said.
"It's probably only 10 minutes [until help arrived], but it felt like an hour."
Luke and Sarah revisited the site where Hunter was taken with the 60 Minutes crew. They told the programme they wanted to thank Brent Malden, one of the airmen who helped save Hunter's life.
A wildlife ranger said she had no doubt the Allisters were spot on with their analysis of how the dingo gained access to the van.
She said a dingo could easily unzip a tent or break a fridge lock to get to what they wanted.
"Easy," ranger Linda Behrendorff said.
There are more than 300 wild dingoes on Fraser Island.
The attack on Hunter came after a 6-year-old boy was bitten multiple times in January and a 9-year-old boy was attacked while on the island with his mother in February.
The former long-time talkback host has been accused of preying on young men.