Council ranger Jock Jones said the Moree pound became an evacuation centre for a variety of animals during the flood peak and calls were still coming in for rescues during the clean-up.

He said most thankful guests were a flock of 14 chickens who earnt their keep by providing rangers with eggs each morning after they were housed in the pound as floodwaters rose in North Moree.

“We obviously had dogs here; we kept a heap of those in the pound for people so they wouldn’t get lost in the floods,” he said.

“We took in chooks. They did lay a few eggs and I think a couple of fellows at the depot feasted on them for breakfast.

“There were a lot of kangaroos in people’s yards so we hunted them out and made sure they got away.

“There was one hopping down the main street on Sunday morning.

“There’s also two or three pigs running around but we haven’t caught up with them yet.”

Mr Jones said the main issue for council rangers after the floods was large numbers of snakes discovered by residents during the clean-up.

“There’s heaps of snakes. They’ve floated around all over the place,” Mr Jones said.

“Now the water has gone down and people are putting their gear back down, it’s a big danger.

“When snakes find something high, they’ll stay in it.”

Mr Jones said as of 3pm yesterday he had already rescued a brown snake, a green tree snake and a black snake from flood-affected homes.