Farmer chased down by goanna, bitten four times in attack
A young farmer has been taken to hospital after being savaged by a goanna in a frightening attack in Victoria's north-east.
Bailey Dawson was bitten several times when the lizard chased him down and then latched onto his arm in Rutherglen, near the New South Wales border.
The farmer had spotted the goanna while he was yabbying after work on Monday night but when he went to get his phone from the car to take a photo, the lizard started to chase on its hind legs.
“I started walking a bit faster towards the car and I looked back and he’s running,” Mr Dawson said.
“So I started running and he caught up to me straight away.”
Mr Dawson said he got down on top of the 1.5-metre long lizard in a bid to fight the goanna off.
“I tried to squeeze it as hard as I could to get it off me, but it was relentless to hold on,” he said.
“It was a bit scary actually.
“When I got on top of it, it was whipping its tail around.
“It knocked my sunnies off my head, slapped me in the face… bit like a whip.”
After a two-minute wrestle, Mr Dawson managed to escape before spending the night in hospital for treatment to his bite wounds.
The farmer said he thinks the goanna chased after him for the meat he was using as yabby bait.
The Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary said goannas are known to be aggressive around food or when they're laying eggs, but it's extremely rare for a goanna to attack a human.
