As millions of people braced for life-threatening torrential rain and gale-force winds, two wildlife ambulances were dispatched from Sydney, heading north.
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The WIRES emergency responders would join a host of local volunteers on the NSW north coast scrambling to reach native animals tossed from trees, flailing in floodwaters, trapped on barbed wire, and suffering hypothermia.
"We've seen a lot of birds that have been impacted by the high winds and the soaking rain," WIRES emergency response team manager Matt Godwin said.
"[Other animals] are getting flushed out of where they normally shelter during the day and getting exposed to the weather, but also other threats, such as people's pets."
Carers - themselves facing power outages, flooding and isolation - spoke to ACM of broken wings and legs, dog attacks, collisions with cars, and sodden feathers and fur.
Kangaroos, wallabies, possums, sea turtles, gliders, bandicoots, flying foxes, reptiles, microbats, and tawny frogmouths are among the animals already taken into care since ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred put millions of people on high alert for life-threatening weather conditions.
"I know definitely of one dog attack and there's been a few vehicle collisions as well for the smaller animals," Mr Godwin said.
'Lost and waterlogged'
Northern Rivers Wildlife carer Kerry-anne Manning said birds were particularly vulnerable during storms.
"They've been blown off course, or they've been blown into windows or been hit by falling branches," she said.
Northern Rivers wildlife lovers are not new to floods and driving rain - and they expect the number of calls to help with sick and injured animals to rise as floodwaters recede and people leave their homes.
"I know with the last flood situation ... after the flood started to recede and people were getting out, we got quite a few echidnas into care that were just lost and waterlogged - and some had respiratory illnesses through pneumonia," Ms Manning said.
Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers alone had up to 40 calls to help animals since Friday, March 7.
WIRES received about 280 requests, while the senior vet at Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital, Bree Talbot, said she was receiving calls on her personal mobile phone because the hospital was closed for three days due to potential flooding.
"We went and collected some sea turtles from Lennox Head that had been washed back in the massive king tides," she said.
"I then had a member of the public drop off an eastern grey kangaroo that they had found stuck in floodwaters."
She'd also treated flying foxes with barbed wire stuck to them and helped with a koala, which was seriously ill and did not survive.
"[The] koala was sitting on the ground in Byron Bay [and] had been thrown out of a tree," Dr Talbot said.
'We're going to get a lot more'
Jan Pilgrim from Tweed Valley Wildlife Carers on the border with Queensland said she was expecting the calls for help would rise now people could move more freely.
"We've had at least 40 or 50 rescues over the last week," she said.
"And then they're building up now. Now we're going to come into the aftermath and ... we're going to get a lot more," she said.
"We have a lot of broken wings, a lot of broken legs, a lot of just exhausted [wildlife]."
The Northern Rivers Wildlife Network is hosting an online fundraiser to help with the care and treatment of animals injured and displaced by the cyclone.
For injured wildlife in NSW, call WIRES on 1300 094 737.
This number also acts as a national referral service outside NSW.
