On Sunday, on the Toolleen-Axedale road a mob of eight ‘roos were seen bounding across the road through bush parched from lack of rain.

The procession could have used a crossing guard - with one straggler metres behind the rest presenting the real likelihood of being hit by a car.

The traffic, which ground to a halt while the mob moved through, travelled more cautiously afterwards, with drivers scanning the bush in case more were afoot.

There was also the case this week of a driver who missed a ‘ roo but in avoiding the critter started a two-hectare scrub blaze when the car became wedged in a roadside gutter, the exhaust overheating long grass baked dry by the summer sun.

We’ve all heard stories of close encounters with kangaroos. 

Of people killed. Of near-new cars destroyed. Of fenders bent. Of creatures that limp away into the bush and calls to wild-life carers to look after badly injured ones. Of increased insurance costs due to ‘roo damage. Of the need for roo bars and ShuRoos. Of warnings not to drive too close to B-double trucks for fear that injured animals could hit the vehicle travelling behind.

Read more: Kangaroos mowed down, killed at St Arnaud football oval

While they can be viewed as a driving hazard and, in some areas, a pest, kangaroos share this wide, brown land with us – made browner, and drier, at present by heat and drought.

It’s on the the inland highways that you see the greatest toll with ‘roo carcasses littering the roadsides, killed by trucks rumbling through in the night. 

Yes, it’s a hazard driving our roads, even more so when all creatures, great and small, are after increasingly elusive food and water sources.  The green on road verges is tempting as it is one of the few places a feed can be found.

The heat returns this week, with a run of days in the high 30s and low-40s. The ‘roos will be on the move. When you’re driving, keep an eye on the scrub. 

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