Let's imagine, for a moment, a wild scenario. A group of feral animals - let's say deer, just for fun - are making a nuisance of themselves around Brookvale and Balgowlah, eating up gardens, threatening people, messing with traffic, taking over the beach.

Manly Beach, in fact - where a group of young bucks turned up ready to greet the early morning joggers, the pouting influencers, and the surf life savers - at dawn.

It wasn't a total surprise - they'd been spotted ruining gardens in Turramurra last week, rutting through Roseville Chase, and two of them were found dead in Frenchs Forest as they made their way down from Ku-Ring-Gai through Davidson and Forestville.

Read more: Deer spotted on North Beach

In reality, some residents had known for a while there were problems with feral deer, but they had never been this close - they had stayed on the outskirts, not so far into the metropolis.

But now we have had pre-dawn commuters in BMWs screeching to a halt to dodge deer popping out on Pittwater Rd. Gardens at two of the well-heeled girls' schools had been destroyed, and Manly, Warringah and Balgowlah golf clubs all had their greens dug up by rampaging Rusa.

Now, let's imagine what happens next. Will governments tell the good people of the North Shore "we're doing what we can, we have management plans, deer aren't a pest species, we're already spending more than $400,000!", as the deer continue to make trouble, penetrating further and further into residential and commercial areas?

Or is it more likely to go another way: where well-connected club presidents call their mate the government member, so the right minister's lackeys can ear-bash the right assistant secretaries in the department, matters are escalated and before long a crack squad of deer controllers is coming to clean up, with extreme prejudice.

Wollongong people have been calling out loud for years for a proper solution on pest deer. Would it take so long if it happened on the north shore? Because whatever the Department of Primary Industries, Local Land Services, and Wollongong City Council say they are doing here, is not working.

When deer are spotted entering front yards in Port Kembla and Warrawong last week? It's not working.

When deer collide with vehicles on a main road at Fairy Meadow? It's not working.

And when a crew of them is spotted in the surf at North Beach, it's not working.

All of a sudden, with deer at North Beach, it's taken seriously as a public safety issue. Why, then, are the people of Figtree, Keiraville, or wherever is next, expected to put up with business as usual?