Aussie who went toe-to-toe with raging 6ft kangaroo speaks out

Aussie bloke who was forced to body slam a KANGAROO after it chased him down and attacked him speaks out about the fight of his life: ‘Thought he was gonna mongrel me’

• Kangaroo brawler tells of his wild tale about fighting a 6ft buck in his back yard
• Cliff Des was captured in a viral video punching on with iconic Aussie animal
• He has warned others keep safe and stay away from the ruthless marsupials  

The man who fought a brutal battle with a rogue kangaroo has described the moment he crash tackled the animal to the ground as it clawed his face.

Cliff Des from Ballina on the north coast of New South Wales told the Today show he approached the eastern grey to shoo him away after the ‘6ft buck roo’ tried to ‘rip his little dog out of the yard’.

‘It didn’t want to go away,’ he said. ‘It just put it’s claws up and got on it’s back feet and started chasing me.’

Footage of the viral brawl shows a frantic Mr Des sprinting away from the irate animal before stumbling and hitting the ground.

The ruthless marsupial then stomps on the man, who gets back on his feet desperately clutching a stick and swinging it wildly in self-defence. 

‘Where I landed I was fortunate enough to land on a stick… but after three whacks it snapped like a carrot and I thought this guy means business. He’s gonna mongrel me real good,’ Mr Des said. 

Cliff Des from Ballina, the man who fought a brutal battle with a rogue kangaroo has described the moment he crash tackled the animal to the ground as it clawed his face and legs (pictured)

The two squared up and exchanged furious hooks and uppercuts until the power and precision of the iconic Australian animal’s boxing technique overwhelmed the homeowner.

He clinched up with the kangaroo and ‘took it to the ground’ in an MMA-inspired crash tackle. 

‘We were on the ground for five minutes wrestling,’ he said.

‘It tried to gouge my face. I put my head down and it gouged me on the top of my head. 

‘It bit my finger. Then it put its back claw through my leg – about an inch-and-a-half through my back leg – it shredded my pants down to the cuff.’

The ruthless marsupial stomps on the man (pictured) who gets back to his feet desperately clutching a stick and swinging it wildly in self-defence

When he eventually decided to get up and and run away, the kangaroo continued to chase him. 

Chanel Nine host Karl Stefanovic joked that perhaps the roo was trying to ‘flirt with him’.

The Aussie Larriken replied: ‘I’m that good looking he might have mistaken me as one of his girls.’

Mr Des suspects a type of grass called Polaris may be responsible for the extremely aggressive behaviour.

‘I know some of them get pretty crook every year because of a certain grass that pops up. When they eat it they get something called Polaris toxicity,’ he said.

Despite the wild brawl leaving him with bruises and scars, Mr Des said he has nothing against the ‘beautiful creatures’.

Footage uploaded to a Ballina, New South Wales, community Instagram page shows the victim and the kangaroo in a wild brawl (pictured) 

‘They’re an Australian icon… just don’t go near them. They can snap… we don’t know how they think. They don’t know how we think’

‘Everyone has a go at them and says they’re rear on the roads and we’re hitting them with our cars but when you analyse it, we built our roads over theirs.’

Mr Des also said he’s grateful the kangaroo attack happened to him and not someone more vulnerable, fearing the incident could have been fatal. 

‘It’s probably fortunate it happened to me,’ he said.

‘There’s a lot of elderly people who walk past this area every day and a lot of women with kids on their little push bikes and kids in prams. 

‘It could have been worse. It could have been would be of them.’

Kangaroos are mostly not aggressive, but thousands of mostly undocumented attacks do occur in Australia when the animals feel threatened.

When do kangaroos attack?

The risk of being attacked by a kangaroo is very low. Several thousand people seek medical attention each year for injuries from domestic pets, while fewer than five people in NSW are treated for kangaroo-related injuries. 

The greatest risk is in areas where people have altered kangaroos’ natural habitat and feeding patterns. 

You are most at risk of an attack when: 

• Their numbers, movements and group structure have changed because kangaroos’ natural predators are no longer present, or new habitat has been provided with the creation of dams, shelter and pastures

• Kangaroos have lost their instinctive fear of humans because people have fed or handled them 

• A kangaroo sees a person as a sparring partner or threat to themselves, their offspring or their dominance of the group 

• A kangaroo is cornered or startled • female kangaroos are weaning their young • a habituated kangaroo (a kangaroo who is used to people) has aggressive traits. 

A kangaroo will attack a person as if they were another kangaroo. It may push or grapple with its forepaws or sit back and kick out with its hind legs. As resulting injuries can be serious, avoiding conflict with kangaroos is vital. 

Source: Office of Environment and Heritage 

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