Newtown social housing development hit by firebomb attack
A late night firebombing that woke residents of a leafy Newtown street is now under the microscope of a specialist police taskforce charged with investigating a series of arson attacks.
Geelong
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A multimillion-dollar social housing project opposite Kardinia Park has been hit by a firebombing that police suspect is linked to a series of arson attacks targeting construction industry contractors.
One Newtown resident claimed to have seen flames soaring more than 7m in the air and a person fleeing the Marshall St scene into a waiting vehicle just before 10.30pm on Sunday.
The resident, who asked to remain anonymous, was alerted to the incident after hearing what they initially believed was a car crash.
Other nearby residents also reported hearing a loud bang.
A police spokeswoman confirmed a piling rig had been set on fire and detectives were investigating.
There were no reports of injuries.
“Firefighters extinguished the fire but the piling rig sustained significant damage,” the spokeswoman said.
“Investigations into the matter remain ongoing but the fire is being treated as suspicious and is believed to be linked to a series of arsons targeting construction contractors.”
The piling rig belongs to El Dorado, a Derrimut-based sub-contractor that has been conducting earthworks at the 3800 sqm site, which was covered by black hoarding in early April.
A spokesman for the company declined to comment when contacted on Tuesday.
The project at 2-12 Marshall St, on the corner of Latrobe Tce, is being managed by Unison Housing and is backed by $23m of state government funding.
Initially expected to be completed by early 2026, plans for the four-storey, 77-dwelling development were approved by planning minister Sonya Kilkenny in December 2023 as part of a process that did not require any input or approval from Geelong council.
Approximately 50 car parks will be located on the basement level.
Despite the significant government investment via its Big Housing Build, there is little publicly available information on the project.
The government has directed inquiries to Unison, which has declined to provide renders and last year removed a link to the project from its website.
A run-down block of 22 single-storey social housing units was demolished to make way for the project.
Work at the site was ongoing on Tuesday afternoon.
Detectives investigating the Sunday night attack form part of Victoria Police’s Operation Hawk, which Premier Jacinta Allan unveiled in March following fresh allegations of criminal behaviour on taxpayer funded Big Build construction sites.
It emerged soon after that the taskforce had been operational for nine months and Ms Allan’s announcement coincided with the allocation of additional resources, or “newly expanded” as Victoria Police put it.
Liberal frontbencher Evan Mulholland said at the time that “the only people getting ahead under Labor are organised criminals and bikies”.
“Under the Allan Labor government’s watch, CFMEU heavyweights have been terrorising workers,” he said.
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