The situation is so serious that one landholder told this week’s meeting of Lithgow Council that he is convinced he would have been killed by an aggressive straying bull had it not been for the timely arrival of a delivery man.

"It had me pinned against a strainer," Mike Johnson said.

“I’m still traumatised by the experience."

Mr Johnson told Fairfax Media that the danger was such that he was no longer prepared to have his grandchildren visit.

Playing Russian Roulette with straying cattle is anyone who ventures onto Jerrys Meadows Road at Sodwalls.

The reluctance of authorities to take effective action is at issue as the situation has been the subject of numerous complaints to Lithgow Council, rural agencies, local members of parliament and even the appropriate minister over several years.

Still the problem goes on.

Mr Johnson, a Sodwalls resident for 20 years, was one of two residents appealing for some council action at this week’s public forum.

A similar appeal at the previous meeting had resulted in a report on what action had been taken in response to previous complaints.

The property ‘Tumblegum’ is owned by a Sydney barrister who has had a local employee managing the property.

“These stray animals tend to hang around our area a lot of the time and it is even more disconcerting when stray bulls are on the road,” Mr Johnson told council.

He said other neighbours had asked him to lodge complaints on their behalf.

“Council is aware that in January last year I was opening my gate to receive a delivery when I was attacked by a large stray bull that had escaped from a ‘Tumblegum’ paddock.

“I could have been critically injured or killed if it had not been for the delivery man who came to my help.”

Mr Johnson said that despite reporting the incident to the neighbouring owner-manager, council and livestock authorities the same animal was still roaming the road three days later.

“Since then I have become very apprehensive about bulls in general, hence my determination to rid this road of stray cattle,” he said.

Mr Johnson said he was not a vexatious or spurious complainant but had photographic evidence to support his complaints and to contradict some of the claims in the council report.

Another Jerrys Meadows Road resident, Graham Edgell, addressed the council meeting for a second time to lodge similar complaints.

He said urban based council staff and councillors would not appreciate that it is far more difficult to see and avoid animals on unsealed roads at night where there are no street lights.

Reiterating his comments from the previous meeting he said he was ‘not complaining about road conditions, just the cattle’.

Mr Edgell said he had been complaining about the problem for 10 years without result and called for council to be ‘proactive rather than reactive’.

“I complained about a 500kg bull at my front gate and it took nine days to even get a reply from council,” he said.

“If a driver collides with a dog the dog is dead.

“If it hits a 500kg bull it’s a different story.”

Mr Edgell accused council of failing in its duty of care to make the road safe and need to once and for all ‘... rid Sodwalls of this ongoing menace’.

“Council’s motto is ‘caring for country’.

“Let’s put this into action,” he said.

Replying to a question by Cr Joe McGinnes the council’s Environment and Development Manager Andrew Muir said council had phased out its impounding facility for large animals several years ago.

He said the policy was now to place the stray stock in an available paddock.