Dozens of koalas have been killed or injured and left for dead during logging of blue gum plantations in South Australia, according to former employees of the harvesting company and a conservation organisation that tried to save the marsupials.
Ex-employees of the company managing the plantation estate, Australian Agribusiness Group, said they tried to save at least 40 injured koalas and saw about 20 that had been killed as plantations on Kangaroo Island were cleared for agricultural use.
They described injuries including broken skulls, jaws, arms and hips. Guardian Australia has seen photos of seriously injured and dead koalas taken at the site.
Australian Agribusiness Group said it adhered to environmental land management practices, had welfare practices in place and any concerns would be investigated.
Injured koalas were taken to Kangaroo Island Wildlife Network, a volunteer organisation that rescues and rehabilitates injured and sick animals. The network’s president, Katie Welz, said 21 had to be euthanised due to the severity of their injuries.
“We have koalas being injured, orphaned, displaced and killed by logging practices on a weekly basis and we are frustrated and astounded at the lack of guidance from government on this issue,” Welz said.
The ex-employees, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleged that some of the company’s workers at times appeared to disregard instructions to leave standing trees that had been marked with tape by trained spotters to indicate they contained koalas.
“The harvesters are supposed to leave eight trees around a tree containing a koala but there were many found suffering to death where taped trees had been felled,” one ex-employee said.
“The authorities should step in to stop this happening. I love animals and it was heartbreaking to see them suffering.”
Another ex-employee claimed that some harvesting operations were conducted without a koala spotter and that workers would spend free time collecting injured koalas from cleared plantation lots. They said the number of koalas killed might have been greater than what they had seen.
“I went in there and collected all the koalas I could get,” they alleged. “There were definitely dead koalas on the ground and the next day they were gone.”
Australian Agribusiness Group, which was contracted by land owners Kiland Ltd to manage the plantation estate, said they cleared the land “in accordance with agreed environmental land management practices”. A company spokesperson said the company was “committed to responsible environmental stewardship” and had “practices in place in relation to the welfare of local wildlife on Kangaroo Island, including koalas”.
“We are managing the complexities and challenges of harvesting fire damaged and degrading plantations on Kangaroo Island, while providing the highest possible level of protection to the local animal population,” the spokesperson said. “If any party raises concerns with us or provides any evidence that our practices aren’t compliant those concerns will be thoroughly investigated.”
Kiland declined to comment.
Australian Agribusiness Group is a separate and unrelated company to Australian Agribusiness (Holdings) Pty Ltd. The latter company is not the subject of any of the allegations raised.
Koalas are a contentious issue on Kangaroo Island. The marsupial is listed as endangered by extinction in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, but not in South Australia. Some Kangaroo Island locals consider it a pest.
Eighteen koalas were introduced to the island a century ago due to concerns the species could become extinct in the country’s south-east as it was being hunted for its fur. Estimates suggest population grew to more than 50,000 before the catastrophic 2019-20 black summer bushfires four years ago, a level that scientists considered unsustainable for the local environment.
But the fires reduced it to about 15,000, including about 3,000 living in blue gum plantations. Most of the 14,500 hectare Kangaroo Island plantation estate owned by Kiland was damaged during the fires, which burned half the island.
Welz said the wildlife network was not advocating that the plantations be left standing, but they should not be logged until a koala management plan was introduced. She said the images of dead and injured koalas were “so shocking and intolerable that they demand a pause to logging operations”.
“Like the broader community, we want the blue gums gone, but it needs to be a carefully crafted exercise to remove habitat that many species of invertebrates, birds and mammals depend on,” she said.
Welz said she had written to the state Department of Environment and Water and the South Australian deputy premier and environment minister, Susan Close, last year to raise the issue but nothing had changed.
“We feel the department abandoned us when it comes to managing the fallout around animal welfare in the plantations,” she said. “The felling of these forests began in 2022 yet [the department] still does not have a koala management plan for Kangaroo Island.”
In response to questions from Guardian Australia, a department spokeswoman said National Parks and Wildlife Service staff had conducted inspections of plantation sites in response to reports of koala welfare issues, most recently in October 2023, and found no evidence of injuries due to wilful or negligent actions.
The spokeswoman said protocols to protect animals, including retaining trees with koalas and eight surrounding trees, were being followed.
“While the department found protocols being implemented, unfortunately some animals are injured when a plantation is cleared, despite measures to protect them being in place,” the spokeswoman said.
Welz claimed that the government team investigating allegations about koala welfare did not collect evidence from local wildlife rescue organisations or the Kangaroo Island Veterinary Clinic when it visited the island on its October visit.
“No appointments were made,” she said. “We offered to get the evidence to the compliance team after the fact with no response.”
Close said reports of animal welfare issues associated with blue gum plantation clearance were being investigated and work on a koala management plan was under way.
But she said the spread of Tasmanian blue gums following the devastating fires and an “overabundance of koalas” was “posing serious risks to the natural environment on the island”.
The department spokeswoman said it “anticipated” that a koala management plan being developed with the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board would be released in late 2024.
• This story was amended on 7 March, 2024, to clarify that Australian Agribusiness Group is a separate and unrelated company to Australian Agribusiness (Holdings) Pty Ltd.
