Aggressive Wallaby Terrorizes Australian Family

KOORALBYN, Australia – A rampaging neighborhood wallaby has been terrorizing an Australian family for months, leaving them to feel like prisoners in their own home, The Courier-Mail reported in its Thursday edition.

Julie Bambrick said an unusually aggressive, but pretty-faced wallaby -- dubbed Wacker by the family -- has attacked 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 added that the family had been attacked while putting the garbage out, going to the car, and even just stepping out the front door.

"I'm scared to go outside," 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."

Bambrick -- who has lived in Kooralbyn, some 40 miles (64 km) south of Brisbane, for nine years -- said Wacker first attacked her grandson in March and now seems to keep a constant watch on her home.

"It just sits outside the house and eyeballs 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."

Bambrick said she kept a star-picket, a pitchfork and a crowbar at the front and back doors in case the wallaby attacked.

She also contacted the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, which told her to fill a watergun with dye to try to mark the problem animal. However, this process has proven challenging.

"It didn't work," Bambrick said. "It started attacking me and I had to try and defend myself by beating it away with the watergun."

"It's just awful," she said. "We're prisoners in our own home."