Phyllis Johnson said she was hanging laundry in her backyard on Monday when she spotted the marsupial. She said the animal lunged at her, knocking her to the ground.
"So I hit it on the head with the broom, and it still came at me," she recalled. "I was singing out 'help, help.' I thought it was going to kill me."
Johnson managed to crawl inside the house and yell for her son, who called police. Officers had to use pepper spray to subdue the animal.
"The animal jumped away, then saw another officer at the back of the police car and went for that officer, and he also had to deploy his capsicum spray, so the roo had to get sprayed twice," said Senior Sgt. Stephen Perkins.
Wildlife rangers were able to trap the kangaroo, which was described as a male red kangaroo, the world's largest marsupial. Red kangaroos, named for their ginger fur, can stand as tall as a man and weigh around 200 pounds.
Johnson was treated for cuts and bruises. Authorities are now trying to decide what to do with the kangaroo.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
