A DUNKELD woman has had an unfortunate encounter recently with an eastern grey kangaroo which left her requiring surgery.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she thought the kangaroo looked a bit ‘iffy’ when she observed it as she was walking from her front door to her car at her property.

The male buck, which was not an uncommon sight at her property was believed to be at a safe distance, at around 15 metres away.

However, in what seemed to be only around two bounds, the kangaroo came at her and as she turned, it managed to strike the back of her leg with its back claw causing a deep gash that required 23 stitches.

“I’m a big woman and it sent me flying,” she said.

“This thing was huge like a nearly seven-foot tall large male.

“Entirely unprovoked, it came at me with outstretched claws and struck me – it was stabilised on its tail and ‘boom’ – it’s kicked me over and sent me flying.

“It then retreated.

“What happened was I think the animal was sick – I was going to my car – next thing it’s attacked me.

“As it came at me, I turned and put my arms up – I’ve got puncture wounds on my arms to protect my face and it’s caught my right thigh with its hind leg – I’m covered in bruises – it kicked me over.”

After driving herself to hospital, the woman was admitted and taken into theatre to have her leg stitched.

“I drove myself to hospital because I knew I needed a tetanus shot.

“I went under a general anaesthetic to have my leg sutured.”

The woman wanted the public to know about the potential dangers of perceiving kangaroos to be “cute and cuddly” when in fact they pose a real danger.

“I think it’s fair to say they’re growing in numbers,” she said.

“Obviously in rural areas kangaroos are a part of the environment, but I think it’s probably fair to say we’ve seen the numbers grow in the area over the last two-three years,” she said.

“We see that with corpses on the roads and it’s probably fair to say this is because they have become more habituated and familiar with people and are possibly less fearful, hence you have this issue of these big animals coming into people’s spaces.

“I hate to think what would have happened if this had happened to a hiker in the Grampians.”

“Whether it perceived me as a threat or was feeling emboldened, I don’t know but my real concern is that people have an expectation that they’re warm and cuddly.

“If it had been an elderly person or a young child, it could have been a very different outcome.

“I think there are a number of different themes that can be extrapolated from this incident; environmental, cultural and societal.

“I feel that appropriate departments really need to give some thought as to properly assessing the extent of risk in terms of tourism and to give consideration to putting in place strategies in popular areas and making those areas safe.

“There is no underestimating the damage they can do.

“My own view is that there are large numbers that congregate at dawn and dusk around Dunkeld.

“They’re not under threat – the numbers have clearly increased – you only have to look at the numbers on the roads – and that’s very regrettable, there’s no question about that – but they’re not under threat.

“There are large families of kangaroos – not just a random two or three.”

The woman said she was very grateful to the health professionals at Western District Health Service for the speed and professionalism with which she received treatment.

“Our community is so blessed to have such dedicated staff from the surgeon to the anaesthetist right down to the tea lady – it was really brilliant healthcare service. It’s run by local people for our local people – (it’s) an incredible service.”

The woman again stressed the importance of being safe around native fauna.

“It is naive in the extreme not to exercise great caution in respect of wild animals.

“This was an entirely unprovoked attack.

“To dismiss such an event as an exception, or rare statistical aberration is misplaced and misleading wishful thinking.

“It can happen, it did happen, and in all probability, will happen again, given the animals clear increase in population and ingress to areas populated by people.”