Djuramin the wallaroo was freezing and barely moving when she was rescued from her dead mother's pouch.
A vehicle had struck her mother on a road in the Macdonald Valley north-west of Sydney.
A local stopped to check her pouch for the joey.
Wildlife advocacy program coordinator Linda Bracken said the baby wallaroo made a successful recovery and would be released back into the wild.
"She's our poster child as to why it's always worth stopping and checking if there's somebody alive in a pouch," Ms Bracken said.
The story of Djuramin, which means sister in Dharug, is inspiring a movement to try save the area's wildlife after devastating floods in the valley in July.
Countless homes of native animals including wallaroos, wombats and koalas were destroyed.
Ms Bracken said the destruction of the homes was putting animals in danger of being struck by vehicles.
"They're out on the road more, and they're looking for feed and they're getting hit," Ms Bracken said.
"I'm getting called out every couple of days."
Yellow signs not cutting through
Ms Bracken's advocacy group organised new colourful road signs to alert drivers to stretches of road where vehicle strikes were frequent.
Artist Luke Kelly and members of the community painted designs from local primary school students on old satellite dishes.
The aim of the project was to include as much of the community as possible, as well as update the signage that was failing to protect wildlife.
"The black kangaroo on the yellow background doesn't really cut through very much anymore, because they're so common," Ms Bracken said.
Anthrozoologist Bruce Englefield said at least 20 million animals died from roadkill every year in Australia.
He said the well-known road signs were being ignored because there was no reward in following their warnings.
"If we could find a way of rewarding people for not killing wildlife when they're in their car, then that would probably work," Dr Englefield said.
River recovery
Local wildlife is just one part of the valley's environment that residents are trying to restore.
Research from Macquarie University suggests more vegetation on the banks of rivers reduces the severity of floods.
River scientist Kirstie Fryirs described it as "roughage".
"What roughness does is it slows floodwaters down and it also reduces their velocity," Dr Fryirs said.
"It reduces the erosive potential of floods."
Dr Fryirs spoke to Macdonald Valley residents at an event organised by Kate Hughes, who has been involved in replanting roughage for 30 years.
Ms Hughes said the research showed the need for residents to become involved in remediating their environment.
"We really do need to provide a network that does on the ground weed management work on this river in perpetuity," Ms Hughes said.
'There will be a next time'
Residents were also busy preparing for the next disaster.
The Bureau of Meteorology has warned that a La Nina weather system is likely to bring more rain over the coming months, which meant more flood events could happen.
Hawkesbury councillor Mary Lyons-Buckett said a lot people were stuck in the recovery phase, but needed to prepare for the next disaster.
"Some people are at the point that they're simply defeated, they just don't want to stand and fight another time," Ms Lyons-Buckett said.
Macdonald Valley residents have suffered power and mobile phone service failures during disasters.
It has prompted the Macdonald Valley Association to distribute UHF radios through the valley to vulnerable residents.
The radio rollout has been noted by residents in other communities in the Hawkesbury, who have been meeting informally to share advice on how they can build resilience in their own areas.
One of these groups is the Upper Colo Association, which formed less than six months ago.
President Yara Hanlon-Smith said their area had a similar issue with communications and handing out of UHF radios would also work in the Colo River community.
Ms Hanlon-Smith said forming an association had helped streamline relations with the Hawkesbury Council.
"I can put forward a really solid summary of all the locals requests and pop it down to them, and then they act on it," Ms Hanlon-Smith said.
"I have now personally developed a really good relationship with people that matter at council and things are starting to shift."
Macdonald Valley Association member Stephen Brown said his organisation was planning to hold a forum with residents and representatives from the council and emergency services to share what lessons were learned and how they could be better prepared.
For some, the frequency of disasters in recent years has been overwhelming.
"Some people have told me they can't even bear to hear rain, they get so stressed," Ms Lyons-Buckett said.
"Unfortunately, we know there will be a next time."
