The driver missed the kangaroo only to see his car go up in flames when he tried to do a U-turn, Castlemaine police officer Peter Lukaitis said.

As he turned, the driver accidentally wedged the car in a roadside gutter, overheating long grass baked dry by the summer sun.

“Either the engine or exhaust has set the dry grass alight,” Sergeant Lukaitis said.

The driver was not injured in the blaze, which emergency services were called to after 11.20pm.

Sergeant Lukaitis said it was a reminder of how easy it was to light dry grass on fire, especially at a time when more wildlife was on the road.

“There’s a lot of roos out there at the moment,” he said.

Kangaroos were being drawn to roadside verges because of dry weather, making them more likely to come into contact with cars, the Wildlife Rescue Information Network warned last week.

Road Class Driver Training owner Andrew Scarce was also seeing more kangaroos as he traveled across rural and regional Victoria teaching driver safety programs.

He said Bendigo and Heathcote were among some of the most dangerous areas for the marsupials.

“You only have to look at the scrub in those ares and you can see it is so thick and close to the roads that there’s no reaction time once kangaroos start to move,” he said.

Mr Scarce advised people to avoid driving at dawn or dusk, when kangaroos were most active.

If forced to drive at those times people should lower speeds constantly scan sides of the road for unusual movements.

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And they should never swerve.

“Just hit the brakes and drive straight through. If you swerve you can lose control of the vehicle,” Mr Scarce said. 

“Swerve too much and it might roll or you could hit a tree or oncoming vehicle.”

Dry weather is set to continue.

The Bureau of Meteorology is expecting 39 degree tops in Bendigo Tuesday and Wednesday before reaching 41 Thursday, 37 Friday and 35 Saturday.

A cooler Sunday could see morning showers, but only between zero and six millimetres.

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