Don James was assessing damages to his property after record-breaking floods hit his town in May, when a Kangaroo unexpectedly attacked him.
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00:00First came the devastating flood, then a near-death experience with a kangaroo.
00:08He was just a big fella, by himself, on the side of the road, feeding, eating grass.
00:15Moments later, the agitated marsupial attacked nearby cars before making a beeline for Don.
00:22He was just coming at me flat out, it was sort of like, he was just there.
00:26The pair ended up in waist-deep water by the side of the road.
00:31I know that's what kangaroos do to drown you or rip you open.
00:34As the roo held him down, drowning, Don cried for help.
00:39So I started throwing backward elbows.
00:42Neighbour, Christy Lees, witnessed the ordeal from her car.
00:45The kangaroo was on top of him and I could see his head trying to stick out of the water
00:50and it registered to me like, this is really bad, something really bad can happen in this situation.
00:55Made myself big, throwing my arms around and at that point it scared it and it took off.
01:01Eastern grey kangaroos can weigh up to 95 kilograms and grow larger than two metres.
01:06But attacks on humans are rare, with less than five people being treated each year
01:11for kangaroo-related injuries in New South Wales.
01:15They'll normally have the fight-and-flight mentality here,
01:18but if they can't disappear, then that's when they're likely to attack.
01:23Meredith Ryan says people who come across a threatening kangaroo should walk away quietly.
01:30But if it does come for you, fall onto the ground in a ball or on the ground
01:36and make sure you cover your head and your throat,
01:40because that's where the animal will attack.
01:43It's really quite scary what happens, but there is a bit of that Aussie humour in it.
01:49The Mid-North Coast's very own Kangaroo Dondee.