Government and RSPCA inspectors are investigating the logging of blue gum plantations on Kangaroo Island after the release of what the South Australian deputy premier described as “horrific” images of koalas allegedly being killed and injured.
Logging has been stopped while the investigation takes place.. It follows Guardian Australia publishing photos of seriously injured and dead koalas, and the Seven Network airing footage of koalas clinging to and being thrown from falling blue gums.
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 the plantations were cleared for agricultural use.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they alleged that some of the company’s workers appeared to disregard instructions to leave standing trees that had been marked by trained spotters as containing koalas. The ex-employees and the president of the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Network, Katie Welz, described injuries including broken skulls, jaws, arms and hips.
The South Australian deputy premier and environment minister, Susan Close, told SA parliament that “we have all been shocked by the horrific images of koalas in blue gum plantations on Kangaroo Island being injured as a result of timber harvesting operations”.
On Thursday, she said she had introduced a regulation requiring companies that wanted to clear Kangaroo Island plantations to have a new koala management plan. She said that meant Australian Agribusiness Group had to stop “until they have satisfied me that they’ve got the appropriate approach”. “We expect them to be able to return to their clearances as long as they are doing it in a way that doesn’t put koalas at risk,” she said.
Close said the department had re-opened an investigation into koala welfare that began in 2021, but was closed because it found no evidence of “non-compliant activities”. Investigators from the Department for Environment and Water and the RSPCA visited Kangaroo Island on Thursday.
Interviewed on ABC local radio, Close said seeing the “distress and pain” of the koalas had been “absolutely appalling”. “I think everyone is horrified by seeing animals suffering like that,” she said.
In a statement, Australian Agribusiness Group earlier said it had paused logging so harvest and wildlife protection teams could discuss how it could further improve its practices.
“Out of these discussions, our teams resolved to further increase their efforts with greater vigilance across all our workers, including additional koala spotting resources, to provide a greater focus on the protection of the local animal population,” a spokesperson for the company said.
The company, which is contracted by land owners Kiland Ltd to manage the plantation estate, said it was working in accordance with agreed environmental land management practices, including an approved koala management plan. It said its spotters had identified and protected 4,000 koalas over the past 15 months, and left a cluster of nine trees when a koala was spotted as was protocol.
“We are operating well beyond what is considered best practice for wildlife management,” the spokesperson said. “Unfortunately some of the facts associated with our practices have been lost in the recent criticism.”
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.
Asked on ABC radio to comment on Australian Agribusiness Group’s statement that it was operating well beyond best practice, Close said: “ We’ve all seen the video. I’m not sure if they think that is beyond best practice.”
Also speaking on the ABC, the South Australian opposition leader, David Speirs, said the Liberal party supported the regulation change. He said the incident had created “not just a national scandal, but an international scandal”.
“I had my cousin contact me about this from Scotland last night and say ‘what are you guys doing with your koalas’. It’s creating a lot of embarrassment … It’s just shocking,” he said.
Spiers said the idea that koalas could be protected by leaving just a cluster of nine trees on an otherwise cleared landscape was “quite bizarre in my view”.
Koala welfare is a contentious issue on Kangaroo Island. While the marsupial is listed as endangered by extinction in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, it was considered a pest on Kangaroo Island before the catastrophic impact of the black summer bushfires, which burned half the island.
The species was introduced to the island a century ago and the population grew to more than 50,000 – a level scientists considered unsustainable – until the fires reduced it to about 15,000, including an estimated 3,000 in blue gum plantations.
Kiland’s 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of plantations on Kangaroo Island were badly damaged during the fires, and the blue gums are being removed in part because they are considered a high fire risk.
Welz said the wildlife network did not believe the plantations should be left standing, but they should not be logged until a koala management plan was introduced. She said she had written to Close and the department about the issue last year, but nothing had changed until the pictures became public.
South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said logging should be paused until there had been an independent investigation and the koalas were protected. “It’s disappointing to hear this issue was raised with state Labor last year, but that little has been done,” she said.
