Biggest snowfalls in 20 years cover the New England region of New South Wales
Founder of Kindly Animal Sanctuary near Armidale, Naomi Hooper, said she had not seen snow like this in decades.
"Within half an hour, the ground was covered, and it hasn't stopped snowing since," she said.
"We have had between 6 to 12 inches [15 to 30 centimetres] of snow across most of the property.
Ms Hooper said she would spend the day ensuring her rescued animals were cared for in the cold.
"On the verandah of the shed this morning, there were peacocks and goats and sheep and maremmas and camels and pigs and everyone just crammed in there together," she said.
"I bought in quite a lot of extra feed, which I'm going through rapidly because they just get so cold and they want to eat so much more when it's like this."
Beef producer Richard Post is located 15 kilometres east of Guyra, and woke up to a white-out ahead of his bull sale open day.
"We've probably got at least a few inches of ground cover of snow here in just a couple of hours, and it looks like it's going to settle in quite nicely for the day," he said.
"I think it'll add up to something quite substantial, and certainly the most substantial in my time here."
Despite the cold, Mr Post said the bulls on show were happy.
"While it's snowing heavily, it's quite peaceful," he said.
"It's just coming down really consistently. Visibility is down to about 300 or 400 metres, but given there's no wind, it's actually quite pleasant."
Kris Banks drove from Coffs Harbour to Guyra with his children to see the snow.
He said it was beautiful but treacherous for two-wheel drive vehicles.
"It's an epic sight. It's probably up to about 10 to 15cm on the road at the moment," he said.
"There's a lot of ice around, cars slipping off the sides of the road, cars coming up to turns, just front-wheel drive cars that can't go anywhere because they've got no traction on the ice, so yeah, bedlam in Guyra today."
Transport Management Centre spokesperson Harry Lance said significant road closures were in place.
The New England Highway is closed between Moonbi and Bendemeer, and between Kentucky and Uralla.
The Oxley Highway is closed from Bendemeer to Walcha.
Waterfall Way is closed between Ebor and Armidale, and from Armidale to Glen Innes.
"Our advice is to avoid non-essential travel if you can. There aren't very good diversions in place given where these closures are," Mr Lance said.
North Western State Emergency Service zone commander Stuart Fisher urged motorists to take care, with up to 50cm of snow forecast.
"As the temperature starts to change, we do get black ice and [drivers] need to be very, very careful," he said.
Mr Fisher said further rainfall also remained a major concern, with substantial falls overnight and soil already saturated.
"Gunnedah is our area of focus going forward over the next 24 to 48 hours," he said.
"We've had moderate to major flood warnings out and we'll be monitoring that and working with the BOM [Bureau of Meteorology] and local councils to mitigate that as it occurs."
The Bureau of Meteorology said the weather situation remained dynamic, with minor to moderate flooding possible this evening at Tamworth.
"[We're] expecting renewed rises along the Peel River, and at this stage it is likely that those flood levels at Tamworth will exceed the minor flood level sometime tonight," senior forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse said.
"There is the potential that we could see those river levels exceed the moderate flood level overnight tonight and into Sunday.
"It is a bit of a dynamic situation with that rainfall and just how wet it has been out across the north-west slopes and plains, and we do still have a flood watch in place for minor flooding across parts of the Namoi River as well."
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