Family says they are prisoners in their own home because of aggressive wallaby

An Australian family say they are prisoners in their own home ever since a rampaging wallaby moved into their Kooralbyn neighbourhood. Julie Bambrick said an unusually aggressive pretty-faced wallaby - dubbed Wacker by the family - had terrorised her 11-year-old grandson Reece, bowled over her husband Virgil and bit him on the face, and hissed, snarled and scratched at her whenever she ventured into her garden. She said the family had been attacked while putting the rubbish out, going to the car and even just stepping out the front door.

"I'm scared to go outside,'' Ms Bambrick said. "I won't go out into the garden because I'm terrified this crazy wallaby is going to come and have another go. The kids won't go out and play because they're too frightened.'' Ms Bambrick, who has lived in the area for nine years, said Wacker first attacked Reece in March and now seemed to keep a constant watch on her Edward Place home. "It just sits outside the house and eye-balls us,'' she said. "It's a big one up to my chest in height and we're all terrified of it. My biggest fear is it could really hurt a child and there are plenty of children along this street.''



Ms Bambrick said she kept a star-picket, a pitchfork and a crowbar at the front and back doors in case the wallaby attacked. She even contacted the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, which told her to fill a watergun with dye to try to mark the problem animal but even that had proven challenging. "It didn't work. It started attacking me and I had to try and defend myself by beating it away with the watergun.'' Ms Bambrick said Reece had been bailed up more than once in the backyard.

"It's just awful,'' she said. We're prisoners in our own home.'' A Department of Environment and Resource Management spokesman said it was aware of the attacks by the wallaby. "Kangaroos and wallabies that are used to being fed can approach people expecting food,'' he said. "When there is no food, they may become aggressive. For kangaroos and wallabies living on the bushland fringe of a suburban area, a human may be seen as little more than a large animal living in its habitat and one that they may need to defend against.''