Koongal house fire: Lani Hilder, Mount Larcom, charged

A young mother has been charged over a house fire in Rockhampton. The home was bought at an unpaid rates auction and was formerly owned by an Indigenous family and had cultural paintings on the outside walls. DETAILS.

Lani Hilder, 29, has been charged with arson and fraud of a Koongal home she bought at an unpaid rates auction in 2022.

When she bought an old Rockhampton home at a bargain price, Lani Hilder claimed she had plans to “fix it up”.

Instead, this publication can reveal the 29-year-old Mount Larcom woman has been charged with arson and fraud after a suspicious fire gutted the home, and the Aboriginal artworks outside, in August last year.

Ms Hilder purchased 252 Grubb St, Koongal for at an unpaid rates auction held by Rockhampton Regional Council in March, 2022.

A fire was reported to emergency services at the home on Saturday, August 6 around 7.20pm.

Police will now allege Ms Hilder “deliberately lit a fire” at the residence.

Rockhampton Criminal Investigation Branch Officer in Charge Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Kevin Mawdsley confirmed on Wednesday afternoon Ms Hilder was contacted through her solicitor to attend the police station where she was then arrested and no objection to bail was made.

Det Mawdsley said the investigation had been quite extensive and had been ongoing since August when the fire occurred.

“It was a thorough investigation with a lot of parts to it,” he said.

“It finally resulted in police making the arrest today.

“Those types of investigations, particularly with a fraud element, do take some time.”

At time of the fire, neighbours spoke to The Morning Bulletin and said the home was engulfed very quickly and they had to protect their homes from going up.

The blaze significantly destroyed the property with piles of burnt rubble on the ground the next day, the roof partially collapsed and only the structure barely standing.

The remains of the home at 252 Grubb Street, Koongal, taken in May 2023, after the fire in August 2022 destroyed it.

The Grubb St, Koongal, property pictured on May 18, 2023.

On May 19, the property was boarded up with a temporary work fence and asbestos signs.

Sheets of tin have collapsed in and holes where the windows used to be with overgrown grass in the yard.

252 Grubb Street, Koongal, pictured in March 2022 (before the fire).

Detailed Indigenous artworks were decorated on the front of the home and it is believed to have been previously owned by a local family.

The home transferred through an estate in 1997 and fell into council rates arrears, leading to the public auction in 2022.

Lani Hilder at the property auction in March 2022.

Ms Hilder spoke to The Morning Bulletin at the auction and said she had planned to renovate the property.

“I’m sure we will fix it up and it will be beautiful,” she said at the time.

“It makes a difference what a coat of paint can do and some gardens.

“It was still a really good buy – where can you buy a house these days for $75,000?”

Ms Hilder will appear before Rockhampton Magistrates Court on June 15.