John Apolloni was driving home after a gym session about 6.40pm when the female deer ran onto the road in front of him, near the Nan Tien temple.

He was left with significant damage to his prized Mercedes SLK AMG, and will now face boosted insurance premiums - but it could have been much worse.

The deer had sprung out from vegetation on the freeway's centre island, perhaps crossing from the Berkeley hills to Unanderra and the escarpment beyond.

"I saw the deer - it looked at me, I looked at it," he said.

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"It looked like it was going to back off but all of a sudden it decided to go across the road. I whacked the brakes on ... and it all went sort of slow-mo. I remember seeing the deer hit from the middle of the bonnet to the left-hand side. The internal air bag went off from the steering wheel and I stopped. The deer got up and staggered off.

"The security features of the car went into action and it wouldn't start. Cars, trucks were coming past. I managed to push it off the side of the lane. The guy who was in front of me, Shane, he must have seen it so he pulled up and came to help me push it right off the road."

By this stage the deer had died - where he saw another deer dead from a presumed earlier incident. After a while a tow truck drove past by chance and took his car, undrivable, home.

Mr Apolloni said he had also seen deer by the roadside on Mt Ousley, which could easily cause a serious crash.

"I think there needs to be action taken ... it's a horrible way for the animal to die, too," he said.

"I don't know whether it needs to be culling, or better fencing on the roads. Whose responsibility it is remains to be seen, but they should not have access on the road."

A Wollongong City Council spokeswoman said the Berkeley Hills were known deer territory.

"Memorial Garden lands and Warwick Street in Berkeley are two sites of the 35 Council sites used under the Illawarra Wild Deer Management Program for targeted culling," she said.

"The Berkeley Hills are one of a number of locations across the city the deer are known to roam, and as this time of the year is known as 'the rut' we do have increased sightings of deer.

"Since July last year, there have been 149 wild deer [destroyed] on council land. There have been 660 deer [destroyed] from land within the whole Wollongong LGA since last July.

"We encourage drivers to take caution on our roads, especially after dark and in the early morning when deer are more likely to be spotted."