Traffic was forced to stop as the eight deer, including fawns, ran rampant along Koloona Ave.

While stopped, quick thinking resident Robert Huisman snapped the photograph above.

“The traffic was stopped in both directions – they were very skittish and going in all directions,” he said.

“They were jumping in front of cars, everyone was stopped for a minute or two. Then they took off into the little park there.”

​Mr Huisman said he was familiar with the pests, including hitting one while driving in his street some years ago. But he had never seen them so frequently, or in such numbers so early in the year, than this year. 

“I have a 2m high electric fence down the side of my house,” Mr Huisman said.

“I didn’t want to fence off the front yard because I didn’t want the place to look like Fort Knox. They walk though nightly and damage plants. At night-time especially, they just wander up and down the road.

“I’ve never seen it as bad as this year. In the past they only used to come down in winter or rutting time. I’ve never seen them like this in summer – going down the street and into our yard. They wander up and down and they graze on the council strip. I don’t know if there’s too many to be contained in the escarpment now.”

Another Cordeaux Heights resident reported seeing about 30 deer in cleared land off Gibson’s Rd at Figtree recently.

“There were just masses of them,” she said.

Mr Huisman said he had strong opinions about what should be done about the deer problem.

“I have a hate-hate relationship with them, because of the damage they do to my garden almost nightly,” he said.

He said he was “pretty disappointed” when the NSW Government declined make deer a pest species, rather than a game species.