The New South Wales government rejected advice from an expert scientific panel before it attempted a failed reintroduction of koalas to a forest in the state’s south that resulted in the death of more than half the animals.

Internal documents show most members of a panel advising the state environment department on plans to relocate endangered koalas as part of a conservation strategy recommended against moving marsupials from forest near Wollongong to the South East Forest national park near Bega, a five-hour drive away.

The documents show eight of the 13 koalas moved in March died – one more than the government originally claimed when Guardian Australia revealed the deaths in July .

They died over a two-month period. Some were left in the forest for six weeks after the first death

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