The Christmas Eve sausage sizzle showdown saw a two-metre kangaroo take on a Camden father is a concern for Laurence Orel from National Parks and Wildlife Services.

“The bottom line is kangaroos are wild animals,” he said.

Mr Orel provided some practical advice in the rare situation you are attacked by a kangaroo.

“If you are attacked, you can drop to the ground, curl in a ball and protect your face with your arms,” he said.

“It is important to give them plenty of space and not provoke them. This is when you can see conflicts rise.”

Mr Orel said through familiarity of humans and actions such as feeding wild kangaroos allows them to lose their natural instinctive fear of humans.

“They lose that fear because we encourage kangaroos to interact with us,” he said.

Mr Chenhall told the Milton Ulladulla Times, although they were not feeding the kangaroos something certainly altered their behaviour.

“I think it was just one of those freak occurrences, something had certainly agitated it before we got there,” he said.

The kangaroo population of Australia ebbs and flows depending on environmental conditions, with a strong population currently on the South Coast due to fertile conditions.

Kangaroos can certainly cause considerable damage, as Mr Chenhall found out, and Mr Orel confirms.

“When they stand on their legs tall they can be quite intimidating,” Mr Orel said.

“Kangaroos act of instinct, so we may need to modify our behaviour such as walking a different path to reduce the risk.”

For more information, visit the NSW Government website called ‘Living with Kangaroos’ here.