A large goanna that ran into a busy winery restaurant on the far south coast of New South Wales on Sunday was quickly shown the door.

In front of stunned diners, Samia Lila, a young waitress on a working holiday from France, grabbed the large reptile by the tail and dragged it out.

The vineyard is surrounded by forests and features a popular restaurant where Ms Lila occasionally helps out.

A few days after celebrating her 25th birthday she found herself ‘first responder’ when a large — and curious — goanna came out of the forest and onto the restaurant’s deck.

Ms Lila was serving tables when a customer grabbed her hand and pointed outside.

“I couldn’t believe it was a goanna. I thought it was big dog,” she said.

“I just grabbed him by the tail. The tail was so big, it was easy to grab”: Samia Lila. Photo: Supplied/ABC News.

“He ran inside [so] I took this chair and I stopped him,” Ms Lila said.

She pinned the goanna between a table leg and one of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Just so I have a second to think about what to do, and then I just grabbed him by the tail. The tail was so big, it was easy to grab.”

Watch Samia’s goanna-wrangling effort

As Ms Lila dragged the goanna by its tail back towards to door, the large reptile tried to dig its claws into the restaurant’s wooden floor.

She dragged it outside along the deck between tables of diners as the goanna struggled.

“Every time he tried to reach me, I just lift him up. He’s quite heavy,” Ms Lila said.

“I just figured if I do this, he’s never going to reach my hand, and I was just focussed on his mouth.”

Ms Lila had never seen a goanna until four days earlier when she saw what she suspects was the same one she evicted, while working in the vineyard.

“I like reptiles, I think he is a really beautiful creature [and] I didn’t want to hurt him,” she said.

“It was interesting for me. I would never see something like this in France.

“At first I was shocked, but then I just smiled. Afterwards I was a bit shaky.”

Her boss, Glen Butson, said he was absolutely amazed at how confidently and swiftly Ms Lila dealt with the goanna.

“She’s terrified of spiders,” he said.

“I never knew we had so many in the vineyard. She scans for them [and] can spot a daddy-long-legs at 40m, but she had no fear at all of that goanna.”

Walk goanna ‘like a wheelbarrow’ says reptile handler

Local reptile handler John Hassell said the technique for moving a goanna is to grab it by the tail, as Ms Lila did, but ideally, further up the tail close to the body, a position that minimises the ability of the goanna to twist around and bite.

He said she did the right thing by lifting the goanna’s rear feet off the ground.

Mr Hassell said the technique he uses is to lift the goanna by the tail, close to the body, rear legs off the ground, and walk it forward “like a wheelbarrow”.

Because Ms Lila had it by the end of the tail, she was doing what reptile handlers call “windmilling”, swinging the animal side to side as it attempted to twist.

Dr Bryan Fry, from the University of Queensland, said that goannas have very sharp and serrated teeth.

“They can do a lot of damage, but they’re not going to attack us although they are going to defend themselves,” he said.

“All goannas have venom …but it’s not going to be dangerous to humans. It’s there in support of their teeth.”

Ms Lila said her next adventure, after saving some money, would be to study acting in Melbourne and see more of Australia.

– ABC