Having only moved to Ballarat from Sydney a week ago, the 25-year-old medical student was going for an evening run through the CBD to find her bearings when she was confronted by a wild wallaby skipping down Mair Street, directly opposite Civic Hall.

Acting quickly, she managed to briefly film it on her phone and sent the footage into The Courier.

“I was like ‘what the hell is that?’ when I saw it coming towards me,” Ms Steel said. 

“I thought it was a dog when I first saw it but then I realised it was a wallaby. I couldn’t believe it.

“I guess you could say this was my welcome to Ballarat.”

Watch the video here

Unsure what to do in the situation, Ms Steel said fellow onlookers told her not to panic and the wallaby would soon find its way back to the bush.

She said the wallaby vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

The sighting came at almost exactly the same time as crew members on board a Manly Fast Ferry rescued a wallaby seen swimming in Sydney Harbour.

Anxious crowds gathered at the nearby Manly jetty as deckhands threw a rope around the wallaby and gradually pulled him closer until they were ready to haul him aboard. 

The wallaby was wrapped in a blanket and whisked away by volunteers from Sydney Wildlife.

It's just over two weeks since another wallaby made headlines around the world after being rescued far from home.

The swamp wallaby, later named "Syd" by his Taronga Wildlife Hospital carers, was seen by passing motorists as he hopped across the Sydney Harbour Bridge about 5am on January 16.

Police reduced speed on the bridge to 40km/h to keep the wallaby safe until they were able to corner him.

Syd was released into Ku-ring-gai National Park last Thursday, nine days after his dramatic ordeal.