His story, frightening as it was for him, is not a isolated incident. Wild deer are increasingly being sighted in suburban Melbourne as populations of the introduced species swell in urban fringe areas such as the Dandenongs and Yarra Valley. Thinking the animal was injured, Mr Godwin, 20, ran to the nearest road to find help and waived down a man driving a four-wheel-drive. The driver told him he had nearly hit the deer when it raced across the road in fright. He said an elderly couple he spoke to further along the track said they too had recently seen a deer on Heatherdale Road, a major arterial in Mitcham. Australian Deer Association executive officer Barry Howlett said it was increasingly common to see deer in suburban areas like Ringwood. "It's not unusual for them to wander along the wildlife corridor along the Mullum Mullum Creek," he said. "And they're getting more abundant."

Mr Howlett said the only risk they posed to humans was when they took fright and bolted across roads. "They could run into traffic and very easily cause an accident," he said. In August last year, two primary school children were treated by paramedics after being struck by a deer that bolted through their Ringwood primary school's playground during recess. Chaos erupted at Norwood Secondary College and Mullum Primary School, both in Ringwood, on August 18 when the deer ran through their campuses while students were outside on a break.

The trend is not limited to Melbourne. Just a week ago a deer was hit by a car and killed during evening peak hour in Woollahra, about 200 hundred metres from bustling Bondi Junction. Passers-by said they were stunned to see a wild animal just five kilometres from Sydney's CBD. Deer were introduced in the wild in Victoria in the 1860s. Victoria's Game Management Authority, the government body responsible for regulating game hunting activity in the state, says Victoria has a "healthy" deer population today, which has led to few restrictions being placed on how many deer hunters can kill each year. There is also no closed season for hunting activities. Most deer in Victoria are sambar, which stand tall at about 130 centimetres and weigh up to 230 kilograms.

According to GMA, almost 60,000 deer were killed by deer game licence holders between July 2013 and June 2014. While the state's total deer population is very difficult to estimate, Col Brumley, Victorian state president of the Australian Deer Association, guesses that there are "hundreds of thousands of deer in the bush" across Victoria. "There's a lot," he said. "They're here to stay, there's no going back."