Directors’ homes, government sites targeted in spate of construction firebombings

A campaign of firebombings and intimidation has erupted in Victoria’s construction sector as underworld players seek to control pockets of an industry supposedly being cleaned up by Labor state and federal government reforms.

The campaign intensified over recent weeks, with equipment on a Victorian-government backed social housing site torched on Sunday night and the family homes of major construction company directors separately targeted in attacks involving arson or violent confrontation.

A piling rig at a site attacked over the weekend.Credit: Justin McManus

In each of the three night-time attacks targeting construction company directors, official sources, speaking anonymously due to fear of repercussions, said family members, including children, of the directors were at home.

Expensive machinery owned by subcontractors at construction sites run by major building companies and developers has also been targeted in firebombings.

The Sunday night firebombing was directed at a subcontractor on the site of a $35 million state government-backed social housing development in the Geelong suburb of Newtown.

There was another arson attack last Wednesday at a site in Footscray managed by major building company Hickory.

A fire at a Docklands construction site late last year.Credit: Internet

Last November, nationwide demolition giant Delta had two of its earthmoving rigs – worth up to an estimated $2 million each – torched on a major Melbourne Docklands site.

The attacks have shocked the state’s construction sector, with insiders questioning whether the government, CFMEU administrators and authorities have the capacity to combat those behind them.

Last week, Superintendent Geraldine Porter sent out a force-wide directive to police to alert an anti-corruption construction industry taskforce about allegations of underworld activity, threats, kickbacks and extortion.

“Corruption [within] the building and construction sector is believed to be extensive,” Porter told her fellow officers.

While the situation has become critical in Victoria, the construction sectors in NSW and Queensland are not unscathed.

This torched ute belonged to a CFMEU organiser.

The firebombing outside the family home of a construction union organiser in Sydney’s south-west in February remains unsolved.

In Queensland, a small number of construction union officials believed responsible for standover tactics targeting rival unionists and certain building companies are still working at the CFMEU.

In a development that highlights how Victoria’s problems crept north, this masthead has confirmed that notorious Melbourne gangland identities have approached Queensland construction sector figures to secure industrial peace on sites. The Queensland approaches began in June last year but have occurred as recently as March. Union delegates are among those issued demands by Melbourne underworld figures.

The firebombing attacks in Victoria began about 18 months ago but have intensified since the union was plunged into administration last August after the Building Bad series by this masthead and 60 Minutes.

This masthead has confirmed at least 10 arson attacks targeting construction firms since September 2023, although the true number is likely to be higher because some may not have been reported to police.

As well as the Delta rigs firebombed last November, two earthworks rigs owned by major government contractor LTE have been torched on sites managed by top-tier construction firm Hamilton Marino.

Machinery owned by earthworks subcontractor Portal was torched last week on the Hickory construction site.

This masthead is not naming the large construction firms whose directors’ family homes have been targeted because the three directors could not be reached for comment.

Two other excavation contractors, Base Piling and Eldorado, have also had rigs torched, causing millions of dollars of damage.

Base Piling and LTE have both featured in the Building Bad series over the firms’ underworld connections.

LTE boss Nick Maric is a close associate of Melbourne underworld players, whom he pays as consultants to ensure industrial peace on his construction sites.

Most of the affected construction companies did not respond to requests for comment. However, in an interview in March, Maric confirmed his company’s equipment had been torched but denied any wrongdoing or underworld connections.

Base Piling, which is being wound up after recent financial trouble, is closely associated with former drug trafficker and Victorian Comanchero boss Amad “Jay” Malkoun.

Its website previously declared that it was an “industry partner” of the CFMEU and of another construction sector company, Enviroprotect, which is owned by the former wife of ex-union boss John Setka.

Despite the wave of arsons, police are yet to arrest or charge any suspects. While Victoria Police’s Taskforce Hawk is investigating several of the attacks, detectives have been hampered by the industry’s code of silence, along with internal red-tape that makes it difficult to recruit human sources.

Construction company insiders, speaking anonymously because of the risks, said the firebombings highlighted the hollowness of the state government’s insistence that the Building Bad scandal could be contained by police.

“If the police can’t do anything about it and victims are too scared to talk, what can we do,” said one insider whose company was among those subjected to arson attacks.

In addition to Victoria Police, federal police have recently launched a major investigation targeting payments made by construction firms to underworld figures to secure union backing.

The Victorian government was contacted for comment.

Albanese government-backed CFMEU administrator Mark Irving, KC, is also attempting to weed out violent and corrupt industry and union players.

Three CFMEU sources who spoke to this masthead but were not authorised to speak publicly, said Irving was considering removing union organisers in Victoria, NSW and Queensland linked to violence or the underworld but was stymied by an unresolved High Court challenge lodged by union bosses hostile to the clean-up.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.