BACK in the day of the famous Aussie TV show it would have been Skippy who saved the cops but the roles were reversed this week on the state’s Far North Coast.

Police in Ballina had to spring into action when a wallaby jumped into the Richmond River and needed to be rescued.

A number of cops who were en route to pick up their morning coffee stumbled across the marsupial lying on rocks on the banks of the river, tired and out of breath.

The wallaby had apparently swum from nearby Mobbs Bay and was worn out from the lengthy journey.

Fearing it would bolt into oncoming traffic and be killed, the officers called WIRES to assist in relocating the animal.

But the furry friend got spooked and jumped back into the water where it seemed to give up hope and stopped swimming.

That’s when the cops took over with a senior constable commandeering a small dinghy and racing to the troubled animal.

He pulled the soaking wallaby on board and brought it back to safety.

“It’s not every day you see a kangaroo in the CBD of Ballina,” the officer told The Daily Telegraph.

“There was a group of onlookers who looked to us to do something so I put my gloves on.

“The fella in the dinghy was more than happy to help when I commandeered his vessel.”

The senior constable who rescued the wallaby is no stranger to animal retrieval missions.

In January he put on his Steve Irwin hat and removed a snake from a supermarket in the town, picking it up and putting it in an evidence bag before moving it to a more ‘snake-friendly’ environment.

“It’s all in a day’s work here in Ballina,” the modest officer said after his latest animal rescue.