SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian woman woke up terrified after a drunken neighbour walked into her house and took a shower, mistakenly thinking he was home, a report said on Friday.

Police told the NT News that the man blundered into the wrong house in Katherine, in Australia's far north, and jumped into the shower to sober up before he realised his error.

"He was very apologetic," Superintendent Daniel Shean said. "The woman was just happy for us to take him away. She thought he was a burglar."

The 42-year-old man was dressed and sitting on the woman's verandah when police arrived, the NT News said.

The report said a couple in the Outback region once caught a man cooking breakfast in their kitchen in the small hours, and that a Darwin woman was watching TV when a drunk strolled into her house, thinking he was home.