John Evans said his nine-year-old terrier began barking incessantly at about 4.30pm.

After a few minutes, Mr Evans checked from his verandah and saw a neighbour lying apparently unconscious in her driveway, a short distance away from his Calton Rd home.

“She was going off and I looked and a poor old lady was lying on the driveway,” Mr Evans said.

“If she had not been barking, I would not have gone outside and I would not have seen her.

“She was lying flat on her stomach.

“I thought the worst.”

Mr Evans was relieved to find the woman, who he believed was aged in her 80s, was able to speak and he phoned an ambulance.

He believed the woman had been struck by her own rolling vehicle, which had continued down the driveway and mounted the kerb on the opposite side of the street.

A NSW Health spokeswoman said the woman was on Tuesday in a stable condition in Batemans Bay Hospital.

“It could have been much worse,” Mr Evans said.

“She was very lucky.”

He said the woman had an elderly friend with her, who would have had to go back into the house and use the landline to get help.

He said Bindi meant the alarm was raised more quickly and paramedics were there within five minutes.

“They were great,” he said.

Mr Evans said Bindi kept a close eye on neighbourhood happenings, but “does not normally keep barking for nothing”.

“She is smarter than most others we have had,” he said.

“She is pretty switched on.”

Mr Evans believes Bindi was also alerted by the strange position of the woman’s car.

“It jumped the kerb, so it could have been a lot worse, if there were cars coming the other way or a child walking,” he said.