Surfer saves drowning kangaroo off Gold Coast beach

A SURFER has saved a kangaroo that was stuck in a rip off Kirra Beach. Picture: Today Tonight |

Neil McCallum, 48, was on a morning walk with his son, Jazz, 15, about 6am on Tuesday along Kirra Beach when a juvenile roo bounded across his path, dived into the surf and started swimming out to sea.

Concerned that two hammerhead sharks had been in the same spot in recent days, the pair kept an eye on the roo until it got caught in a rip.

"A guy came up and said: 'Gee your dog's a long way out'," Mr McCallum said yesterday. "I said: 'That's not a dog, that's a kangaroo'."

"It was very frightened by the time I got to it. I grabbed it on the back and it sort of shook me off like a wild animal. So I tried to wrestle him on to my surfboard and he found it difficult to stay on board."

Eventually he herded the roo into a sand bar where it recovered before bounding away.