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Victorian wildlife authorities are investigating reports of a "koala massacre" in the state’s south-west, with hundreds of the marsupials alleged to have been starved when their habitat was logged, their bodies then bulldozed into waste piles.

Volunteers and government workers were on the scene at Cape Bridgewater on Sunday, trying to rescue dozens of surviving koalas.

A koala injured in the logged blue gum plantation at Cape Bridgewater. The animal was later put down after being found to have a broken arm. Credit:Helen Oakley

The deaths are believed to be the result of clear-fell logging of a plantation of bluegum trees, according to conservation group Friends of the Earth, with the operation leaving hundreds of koalas to starve, a version of events disputed by the logging industry.