A South Australian winemaker had a bizarre encounter with a cheeky koala when he found it sitting in the back seat of his car.

At the time, Tim Whitrow left his vehicle to check fruit in the New Alluca Wine vineyard in McLaren Vale.

He left the car door open and airconditioner on for his dog but found something he was not expecting when he returned.

Mr Whitrow’s self-recorded video shows him patting the koala before it tried to claw him as he attempted to usher it away.

The koala then began climbing over the car seat and onto the dashboard.

In the video Mr Whitrow is heard telling the koala not to claw at the interior.

“No, no, don’t climb up there,” he says.

“Mate, what are you doing?”

“You’re tearing up my dash.”

The animal eventually made its way out of Mr Whitrow’s car and back into the bush.