Dead koalas have been mysteriously dumped in cardboard boxes and left to rot by the side of the road until the gruesome find was discovered by a passing local.
Duane, 77, found the fly-blown corpse of one dead male koala next to another even more decomposed stuffed inside a box near a wind farm on rural Thistle Road in Portland, Victoria on Thursday.
This latest discovery comes just days after Helen Oakley found a third dead male koala 100 metres away on Tuesday, which has since vanished.
Authorities have now removed the other two animals but are still seeking the person who left them there and the reason the beloved marsupials died.
Members from the Conservation Regulator, which is tied to the Department of Environment (DEECA), is now investigating the matter.
Duane, 77, found a dead male koala on the side of a dirt road and another stuffed into a cardboard box near a wind farm on Thistle Road in Portland, Victoria, on Thursday
This latest discovery comes just days after Helen Oakley found another dead male koala was found 100 metres away on Tuesday, which has since been removed
Duane, who suffers from cancer and takes daily walks around the area to help cope with the pain, almost cried when he realised what he had found.
‘I thought, “Oh Christ” when I first saw the first one… I love animals. After I found the koalas I stood there and thought I could cry,’ he told Yahoo.
Ms Oakes, who is a koala advocate, returned to the area on Thursday to inspect the latest discovery by Duane and said that the smell was horrendous.
‘The smell was disgusting. When I got home I could still smell the stench on my clothes, so I had to get out of them and wash them right away,’ she said.
The area is close to an aluminium smelter whose management, Alcoa, reported the findings to a regulator under the requirements of the Wildlife Act.
There is no suggestion the koalas’ deaths were in any way linked to the smelter.
But authorities are appealing to the public to help them figure out what keeps killing koalas in the area.
Leader of wildlife rescue group Blessings of the Bush Koala Shelter, Janet Murray, said the placement of the bodies is what made the scene so suspicious.
Despite there being plenty of trees on Thistle Road the corpses were left out in the open which Ms Murray believes might mean that more will be found.
Ms Oakes, who is a koala advocate, returned to the area on Thursday to inspect the latest discovery by Duane and said that the smell was horrendous
The area is close to an aluminium shelter whose management, Alcoa, reported the findings to a regulator as per the requirements of the Wildlife Act