Wayne Jansson

Wayne Jansson

Chief reporter & photographer at No Fibs
Wayne Jansson is an Australian citizen journalist and photographer. He covered the seat of Indi during the 2013 federal election and since has covered the growth of the community independent movement.
Wayne Jansson

Unknown numbers of koalas – possibly hundreds – have been killed during plantation logging operations south west of Portland in Victoria this week.

Friends of the Earth (FOE) reported koalas were left to starve after logging operations in late December 2019.

Last week, surviving koalas were bulldozed into slash piles, along with the bodies of those that had already starved.

Volunteer veterinarians and animal rescuers are frantically working to save surviving koalas entangled in piles of branches.

Koala clinging to branches bulldozed into a pile on the ground. Photo: Facebook

FOE also reported the plantation was operated by South West Fibre in a joint operation with Midway and Japanese company Mitsui.

This is another blow for koala populations already decimated by the ongoing bushfire disaster.

Volunteer animal rescuer Helen Oakley posted a video to Facebook saying:

Australia should be ashamed of this, I’m tired and we need help.

Clearly distressed, Oakley put out a call on Facebook for volunteers to “walk the rows” to locate koalas. She can be contacted via Facebook.

No Fibs approached the Victorian Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for comment. We will follow up with their responses.

Latest No Fibs story on the koala massacre in Victoria: Scale and implications of #KoalaKillers crime still unknown: @jansant reports on #SpringSt