Landowner's fence restricted koalas' ability to leave before mass killings

James Troeth, 85, bought land at Knights And Parkers Road in about 2018 with plans to clear vegetation to return the land to pasture.

He engaged Bryant's Forestry and Earthmoving and Hutchinson Rural Contractors to clear blue gum trees between late 2019 and 2020.

The clearing left insufficient habitat for the koala population, leading to the discovery of dozens of ill or dead animals at the property.

Troeth pleaded guilty in Warrnambool Magistrates Court to aggravated animal cruelty and other offences on Friday, February 23, 2024.

He was fined $34,000 without conviction.

The court heard Troeth engaged a company to erect the fence in mid-2019 to keep foxes and cattle out, and then later increase its height to 1.8 metres.

When wildlife volunteers and department officials went to the property in 2020 there were more than 200 koalas located alive, of which some were found dead or euthanised due to dehydration and poor body condition.

Prosecutor Susanna Locke said if not for intervention the remaining koalas would have starved to death within two months.

Ms Locke said the erection of the fence around the site prevented the koalas from escaping the heavy machinery works.

She said the presence of koalas would have become increasingly obvious as the trees were cleared.

The court heard a concerned worker called Wildlife Victoria a number of times during the time of the clearing.

In a recorded phone call the resident told RSPCA there were 300 koalas on 450 acres where there were "getting less and less trees".

"The site is full of koala bears and there's a bulldozer in there knocking sh** over," he said.

He said there was nowhere for the wildlife to escape, they were going to be run over, injured or left without food and with no other habitat within 10 kilometres.

The man told RSPCA he'd made three anonymous calls in six weeks and nothing was happening.

Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge questioned the delayed response by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), which is now part of the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action (DEECA).

"It must have been something that struck somebody as being fairly urgent... and yet nothing happens for at least six weeks," he said.

The prosecutor said the mass killings happened during the same summer as the Gippsland fires.

"I think there were some resourcing issues," she said.

A lawyer for Troeth said his client was devastated when he learned about the koalas' suffering.

He said it came as a "dreadful shock" and affected the farmer of 70 years greatly.

The lawyer said Troeth had no criminal history and at no stage drove the machinery that cleared the trees.

The magistrate accepted Troeth was not "deliberately cruel or sadistic" and the injuries and deaths were the indirect consequences of his actions.

But he said the offending was serious and the days had long passed where contractors and farmers could "ride roughshod over wildlife".

"Like each and every member of the community they have a responsibility to uphold minimum standards of welfare to animals," Mr Lethbridge said.

Troeth and the two contractors were originally charged with more than 250 animal cruelty offences over the koala deaths.

Portland's Hutchinson Rural Contractors was fined $20,000 in December 2022, while Bryant's Foresty and Earth Moving copped a $79,000 penalty in 2023.