An ABC investigation alleges that the state-owned, for-profit logging company VicForests is harvesting tree that are "completely outside the legal boundaries", and is planning to cut more.

The report states that "trees making up some of Victoria's most endangered ecosystems are being felled and turned into building products, paper or wood chips by VicForests, which are then sold in retailers such as Bunnings and Officeworks".  Those two companies now say they will phase out products made from wood from VicForests by 2020, unless the logger was able to get certification by the Forest Stewardship Council.

The Victorian Government determines where VicForests can log in state forests by creating what is known as an "allocation order".  But the ABC investigation - which involves satellite images that rather brilliantly back-up the conclusion - found that thousands of hectares of logged land are not inside the areas it has been granted permission to log.

"If VicForests is logging timber that hasn't been allocated to them, then they're taking and selling timber that doesn't belong to them," said Danya Jacobs, a lawyer at Environmental Justice Australia.  "And another way of putting that is, it's tantamount to stealing timber from public forests."

"It's theft," said Ed Hill, an environmental activist employed by Friends of the Earth.  "Essentially these forests belong to all Victorians and by logging them, VicForests is stealing from all Victorians," he added, alleging that the state government "have failed in their role as the regulator to hold them accountable for a whole raft of breaches that have not been acted on".