Jenny Nielsen was on her lunch break and was walking along the footpath in Schofield Lane near the Stewart Place bus terminal at around 12.30pm on Wednesday when the branch crashed to the ground striking her and a parked car.

Mrs Nielsen, 49, was pinned to the ground under the large branch.

“I didn’t know what happened,” she said.

“I was walking along towards Kinghorne Street and suddenly felt this tree branch hitting me and I was on the ground.

“It just hit me.”

The large branch from the tree in front of the Paceway Cafe narrowly missed Mrs Nielsen’s head, striking her on the shoulder, before her lower left leg took the full force of the branch. She also struck her head on the concrete during her fall.

Despite suffering a dislocated ankle, broken leg and bruising she said she was lucky.

“I was very lucky. It could have been so much worse,” she said.

“I’m a bit sore and dilapidated now, but just so lucky.”

A number of bystanders rushed to help, trying to release her.

Two nearby local tradesmen using hand saws cut away the branches to free her.

Others attempted to hold the large branch off Mrs Nielsen while she was being rescued.

NSW Ambulance paramedics treated her at the scene before taking her to Shoalhaven District Hospital.

“I’m thankful to the people who came to my aid to rescue me,” she said.

“I would like to say thank you to them all. I don’t know your names but I’m very thankful.

“Without them I don’t know where I would be.”

Doctors are waiting for the swelling in her ankle to go down and expect to insert plates into the broken bones in her lower leg during surgery early next week.

Her husband Col was working with a client at the Bay and Basin Resource Centre at the time and only received a garbled voice message from his wife while she was on her way to the hospital.

“I first thought she had been in a car accident,” he said.

“It wasn’t until I was halfway into town the hospital rang me and told me what had happened, that she had been struck by a tree.

“I couldn’t believe it.

“Jenny is just so lucky - it could have been so much worse.

“A few inches the other way the outcome could have been horrific.”

Not knowing if she was lucky or unlucky, Mrs Nielsen joked she would be buying a lottery ticket.

She expects her recovery to take a few months.

Witnesses have described hearing a “loud crack” and then a “swooshing sound” when a large branch fell from a pine tree in the Nowra CBD on Wednesday lunch time, hitting a female pedestrian.

Jenny Nielsen was walking along the footpath in Schofield Lane near Stewart Place, when the branch crashed to the ground striking her and a parked car.

Mrs Nielsen was pinned to the ground under the large branch.

A number of bystanders rushed to her aid, trying to release her.

Electricians Trent Hill and Brett Stephenson were getting lunch nearby when they heard the panic.

“There was a loud swoosh. The noise you hear when trees come down,” Brett said.

“Then it became apparent a woman was under it.”

“A number of smaller limbs trapped the woman,” Trent said.

They grabbed a hand saw from their van, using it to cut away the branches to free her.

“We just started cutting away some of the branches so we could get to her,” Trent said.

“There were about 10 people in there, working, holding up the other branches in an attempt to get her out.”

“We just went to help - the tree was still creaking when we were under it,” Brett said.

“It was a bit unnerving. I just knew we had to get her out of there and get everyone else out before anything else came down.”

A volunteer at the adjacent Australian Red Cross store, Tracey Reksmiss was in Junction Street when co-workers contacted her saying the large branch had fallen onto her car.

“I’d just left the store and was in Junction Street when I was contacted,” she said.

“I couldn’t believe it when they rang and told me. We have parked our cars there forever while working at the Red Cross and nothing like this has happened before.”

The six-month-old Mazda CX9 suffered damage to the roof after taking the majority of the weight of the branch in the fall. The back window was also smashed.

“I just hope the poor woman is okay,” she said.

Co-worker Jill Cook said inside the store they heard a big “woosh” and the limb just came down.

“I didn’t hear a crack,” she said.

“Then we became aware there was a woman trapped under it and people just came from everywhere.

“It was just lucky no one else was hurt. There is usually lots of people waiting around for buses or just sitting under the tree.

“It was also lucky the car took most of the force.”

Lucky escapes were retold on Facebook, with Catherine Hutchinson saying her father-in-law was sitting under this tree next to another lady as the branch cracked.

“They both heard a crack and after deciding that it was the tree he suggested they move,” Ms Hutchinson said in her Facebook post.

“Seconds later the bench was hit by a large tree branch. Could have been nasty. A big thank you to the local business owner who rushed out with a coffee for my elderly father-in-law who was clearly shaken.”

Shoalhaven City Council staff were called to the location, and inspected the tree.

A local tree lopping firm removed the fallen branch.