Four displaced koalas have been rescued across the Lower Hunter this week, amid growing concerns about the impact of urban development on the region's environment.
Others weren't so lucky, with at least two carcasses found near where land has recently been cleared for housing estates.
Minmi resident Ray Jolliffe was alerted to a male koala that had taken refuge in a jacaranda tree outside his Woodford Street home on Monday morning.
"I went out to have a check on a nest of newly hatched pee wees and that's when I spotted it," he said.
"It must have come in overnight. It would have had to travel between 200-300 metres. It was lucky because there are foxes and dogs around here."
Mr Jolliffe's home is about 250 metres from where land is being cleared for the Minmi Estate development.
Hunter Wildlife Rescue volunteer Alexis Ting and her colleagues Tahlia Maskey and Jim Tarly were called to rescue the koala, which they estimated was about four years old.
It is being treated for eye ulcers and a possible head injury at Somersby Animal Hospital before it is released.
"He looked like he had been displaced," Ms Ting said.
"He was a reasonably mature male so he should have known what he was doing. We are not sure why he was in that spot."
Later on Monday, rescuers also saved a female koala that had climbed a power pole at Teralba.
"We've had four this week. They are definitely getting pushed out," Ms Ting said.
While developers often used environmental offsets to help get development approval, the remaining trees could be unsuitable for the local koala population.
"They have a very specific diet. Around here they eat gums like nicholii, robusta, scribbly and scoparia. So even when developers are just leaving a few gum trees, they might not be the correct gum trees," Ms Ting said.
"We have these beautiful, vulnerable creatures in our region and we should be protecting them, not destroying their habitat."
As much as their mission is to save koalas, Ms Ting said dead koalas could also assist in conservation research.
"It's really important that people let us know if they see one because we can check the pouch. If it's a male we still send them to Somersby Animal Hospital for DNA testing and to get data from them," she said.
Earlier this year, Lake Macquarie City Council defended its assessment of the controversial Minmi Estate development, despite acknowledging the project would likely wipe out 150 hectares of core koala habitat.
Council staff expressed major concerns about the project's environmental and social impacts, however, their hands were tied given the project was deemed to be consistent with the concept plan approved by the state government in 2013.
The Hunter Central Coast Joint Regional Planning Panel ultimately approved both the 1070-lot Lake Macquarie component and the 858-lot Newcastle component.
Call Hunter Wildlife Rescue on 0418 628 483 to report injured, displaced or deceased koalas.
