Horacio Rodriguez said he sees the wild deer grazing in his neighbours’ property during the day, and hears them after night falls as well.

“It’s a daily occurrence. It’s a major problem. It’s been a problem since about 2005 when I moved in.

“Because we’ve never had fencing, the back yard is fair game for them. They come in and chew whatever’s viable, whether it’s fruit trees or the lawn. 

“Their tracks create erosion issues so every time there’s rain you lose a lot of soil and topsoil because there’s so much damage to the ground.”

On Wednesday NSW shadow treasurer Ryan Park and Member for Wollongong Paul Scully promised residents there that if Labor was elected at the next state election, wild deer management in the area would get a funding boost of $800,000 over four years.

The MPs said this was double the present funding.

“When you get to the point where people are fearful of letting their kids play in their backyard at certain times for fear of deer you know [things] have gotten out of control and they need to be addressed,” Mr Scully said.

Mr Rodrigues said he wanted to see the red deer declared a pest species to ease their culling, as well as help with fencing.

The State Government this year went against advice from the Natural Resources Commission and campaigners including Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery, and declined to declare them a pest.

But Labor was not ready yet to pledge it would declare red deer, which were introduced for hunting, a pest. Mr Park said other control options needed to be properly funded, before potentially advancing that policy change in shadow cabinet next year.

“It’s not our policy yet [but] if that is something that is going to help solve this issue then we certainly need to look at it,” he said.