Around 7am Penelope Twemlow was out for her morning walk along Lake Burley Griffin, when she spotted a few people gathered near Regatta Point.

"I saw a kangaroo fighting, for want of a better word, a gentleman on a bicycle," she said.

"That gentleman had the bike in between him and the kangaroo to try and defend himself, and the minute he tried to get away the kangaroo went after him again," Ms Twemlow said.

"In the kerfuffle, the kangaroo ended up in Lake Burley Griffin."

Ms Twemlow said the kangaroo "was visibly in shock and shaking quite badly," and after a few minutes of trying to calm the creature, she and a couple of bystanders decided to step into the lake and help the creature our.

"And I just thought we have to get the poor thing out of the water, and then try to get it onto dry land so it can do what it needs to do."

After extracting the kangaroo and returning it to a grassy patch nearby though, it "started to essentially fight one of the gentlemen again and then jumped straight back in the water and swam out to the middle of Lake Burley Griffin," she said.

She hung about for a while, concerned about the animal's welfare, but had to leave due to the extreme cold.

"I got so bloody cold because it was one degree out - I've got a photo of my pants there were icicles forming on my pants."

Bystanders had tried to contact animal welfare services, and when she left, her two co-rescuers were waiting for rangers to arrive.

But Ms Twemlow had only caught the tail-end of the kangaroo's big morning.

An earlier rescue had taken place, captured by David Boyd and shared on Facebook.

"I was walking along the lake, must have been about 5.30 this morning and saw the little fella sitting in the water, shivering, and obviously in a bit of distress," Mr Boyd said.

Mr Boyd called Access Canberra right away, and two other men helped the creature out of the water in the meantime.

Both Mr Boyd and Ms Twemlow said they had never seen anything like this in Canberra.

Mr Boyd, who is leaving Canberra, said the community efforts to help the kangaroo had given him a lift.

"It was just a good news thing ... make people happy I guess, and the times we're living in a moment it's good to see people rally around and get something done, and have a good outcome," he said.

More to come.

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