Sydney’s Jewish community may have been the target of a “mass-casualty event” with the discovery of explosives in a Dural caravan. Follow for live updates.
Sydney’s Jewish community may have been the target of a “mass-casualty event” with the discovery of explosives in a Dural caravan. Follow for live updates.
A “potential mass-casualty event” was discovered at Dural 11 days ago when a caravan packed full of explosives was seized by police.
The public has only just been made aware of the potential act of terrorism after the news leaked to a Sydney newspaper.
Here’s everything you need to know:
- A Dural local discovered and moved the abandoned caravan which was found on Derriwong Road on January 19. When the local looked inside and discovered explosives, they called police.
- Inside the caravan police found a note with the address of a Sydney synagogue.
- The amount of Powergel explosives discovered could create a 40-metre blast wave, police said. The explosives were likely stolen from a mining site.
- Premier Chris Minns was briefed on the matter, however, police and the state government decided to withhold information about the potential “mass-casualty event” from the public. On Wednesday, the operation was leaked to the media.
- Minns said the incident is likely an act of terrorism.
- Two people arrested “on the periphery” of this investigation had already been arrested under Strike Force Pearl. The owner of the caravan has also been arrested, but has not been charged in relation to this incident and had previously been arrested for other alleged offending.
- Police are still looking for those directly responsible for the incident, NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has slammed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his handling of antisemitism, saying the Jewish community is “disgusted”.
Speaking in Alice Springs, Dutton said Albanese has failed to adequately respond to the increase in antisemitic attacks.
“If you speak to people in the Jewish community as I do on a regular basis, they’re completely disgusted with the prime minister’s inaction,” he said.
“This has not happened just overnight, it escalated … this is why I wrote to the prime minister after we saw the terrible circumstances on the steps of the Opera House two days after people, including women and children, were slaughtered in Israel,” he said.
“I went to the prime minister [and] asked if National Cabinet could be brought together because you could foresee that what we saw the steps of the Opera House by these protesters was going to spread. The prime minister ignored that and the prime minister has, for his own political purposes, sadly and tragically decided to put the votes of Greens supporters ahead of people in the Jewish community and regional areas.”
Police returned to Tammy Farrugia and Scott Marshall’s Liverpool home last week, neighbours told the Herald.
The pair, who are in custody on unrelated offences, were allegedly named in a search warrant relating to the Dural caravan.
“They came around midnight, lots of them. About a dozen,” a man living in the same housing complex as the couple who did not want to be named for safety fears said.
He said officers had also been to the complex on a quiet street in the lead up to Christmas, when Marshall was arrested and charged with two counts of having suspected stolen goods and two of having a prohibited weapon being knuckledusters found inside the home.
At the same time, Farrugia was charged with drug supply and possession offences. She was later charged over allegations of driving a stolen Mitsubishi ASX and procuring Jerry cans in the lead up to an antisemitic attack in Sydney’s east in December.
Another neighbour said that many cars frequently came and went from the address, but the couple did not socialise within the complex.
Marshall remains on remand inside Silverwater’s Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre, and is not facing any charges in relation to the caravan. Meanwhile, his partner Farrugia has been charged over her alleged role in antisemitic vandalism in Sydney’s east in December. She remains in prison on remand, and has also not been charged in connection to the caravan.
The couple have been living in the complex for around six months, said multiple neighbours, and kept to themselves. They did not appear to work.
At the home on Thursday morning, the front door appears damaged and the lock broken. On the small lawn in front of their block, a large stuffed unicorn, a stuffed frog and a teddy bear – all wet – sat perched in the tree.
All the blinds are shut and a CCTV camera on the balcony appears to be disconnected
A woman allegedly named in a search warrant connected to the explosives in Dural earlier posted on TikTok looking for a caravan to purchase.
Tammie Farrugia, who is accused of being part of the criminal group who carried out an antisemitic graffiti attack in Woollahra, posted on social media in December “anyone got a caravan for sale need one ASAP I’ve got $$$$$$“.
In December Farrugia also posted on social media “anyone got any plastic jerry cans plz let me know”.
Farrugia is alleged to have obtained five jerry cans in the lead-up to an antisemitic attack in Woollahra on December 11.
While she hasn’t been charged in connection with the discovery of the caravan in Dural, Farrugia is believed to be involved “on the periphery”, police said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns says a caravan filled with explosives is “undeniably” an escalation in race-fuelled hatred in NSW, as police confirm the caravan owner was in custody prior to the discovery of the potential bomb.
With NSW Police scrambling to contain a damaging leak published on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said there was a probe into how details about the investigation were published before they could be publicly announced.
Hudson said the investigation had been “significantly compromised” by leaks to the media, saying police needed to “reposition ourselves” and see whether the investigative strategies would be delayed.
Minns said after several antisemitic attacks across Sydney, the caravan laden with mining explosives represented a very concerning escalation in race-filled hatred and violence in NSW, as he called for members of the public to come forward with information.
Despite saying on Wednesday that members of the Jewish community had been informed about the caravan, Deputy Commissioner David Hudson declined to say exactly who was briefed after community leaders said they were completely unaware of the investigation.
“We have a community engagement unit that maintains contact with the community,” he said.
After not appearing at Wednesday’s press conference to detail the investigation, Police Commissioner Karen Webb said she had asked Hudson to provide the premier with a briefing but did not explain why she did not appear.
A woman accused of a separate antisemitic attack was allegedly named in a search warrant related to the explosive-filled caravan found in Sydney’s north-west.
Robert, who owns a property on Derriwong Road in Dural where the caravan was found on January 19 after being abandoned for six weeks, said “about 20 police” from the terrorism squad “barged down the doors” of his home on January 21.
Robert does not live at the property and said his tenants include two elderly women and a son with a disability.
“They said the reason for the raid was the explosives. They said this house was linked to the caravan,” Robert said.
Robert’s daughter added that the search warrant referenced the names Tammie Farrugia – who was recently charged over an antisemitic attack in Woollahra on December 11 – and the 24-year-old’s partner, Scott Marshall.
Marshall, 36, is currently in custody on remand for unrelated charges. Farrugia and Marshall have not been charged over the caravan explosives.
Robert said the couple had never been associated with his house and believed police had the incorrect address.
“They said they had evidence – but I don’t believe the search warrants were correctly executed. I never received a warrant. One would expect the owner of the property would receive a search warrant.”
He said the young tenant was “handled roughly” by police, the elderly women were “shaken up” and that his house was damaged in the raid, adding he knew the tenants “had nothing to do with this caravan – I know them”.
Robert said he noticed the caravan sitting on the side of the road over several weeks but did not think it was parked suspiciously, and it was never on his property.
NSW Police said they could not comment on matters currently under investigation.
Liberal MP Julian Leeser – whose electorate includes Dural – has called for NSW Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to give more details on the caravan filled with explosives.
Speaking on ABC News, Leeser said the community deserved to know as early as possible.
“I think that the police need to allow the community to find out about these investigations at the earliest possible occasion and that’s a matter for judgement for the police and ultimately a responsibility of the premier,” he said.
“I echo the comments of my leader, Peter Dutton. We also want to know when the prime minister and senior ministers at the federal level knew about this and what, indeed, they have done in this space.”
Asked about comments from the Jewish Council of Australia’s Sarah Schwartz, who reiterated her opinion that Peter Dutton and the Coalition are exploiting the rise in anti-Semitism, Leeser rejected that view.
“I reject that entirely. The Jewish community has been calling for governments to take stronger action to protect the community for the last 15 months,” he said.
“Myself, Peter Dutton, James Paterson and others have been echoing those calls and have been pushing the federal government to act. The federal government needs to be responsible for the fact that it has not done everything in its power.”
Co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim has said a “witches brew” of ideologies fostered in universities, arts and culture events and on social media had led to violence against the Jewish community.
“We need a change of attitude by our universities, a change of attitude by our writer’s festivals, our arts and culture centres, by social media platforms in fostering these hateful ideologies which result in violent actions in the name of freedom of expression,” he said.
“Sectors of our society have provided a home to extremist ideologies in the name of really misguided thinking about where freedom of expression begins and ends … that is the witch’s brew field, if I can call it that, that the extremist ideologies of the left, of the right, and the religious ideologies out of which these violent actions emerge.”
Wertheim also called for mandatory minimum sentencing for antisemitic acts.
“We need to get the message across to people who are caught and convicted of these crimes that it’s not business as usual,” he said.
“If the penalties are too light, they will just simply see there’s a cost of doing business.”
Earlier this morning we brought you news of a Jewish school and a home in Maroubra being hit with antisemitic graffiti overnight. Now the police have announced this incident was one of three incidents overnight.
Antisemitic graffiti was also located at Eastgardens and Eastlakes in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
“Of particular concern is the graffiti on the school at Maroubra,” Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.
“School starts back today, so those kids will be walking in to see that vile messaging.”
The NSW Premier Chris Minns and the NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb provided an update on the investigation into the explosives found in Dural earlier this month.
You can watch the press conference below.
The NSW Police and NSW government’s decision to keep the Jewish community in the dark has been criticised by one of Australia’s leading Jewish organisations.
Peter Wertheim, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said he was disappointed that the police didn’t inform Jewish groups about the existence of a caravan full of explosives.
“I think they should have told us earlier, before it hit the media, because the impact on the community then could have been managed,” he said.
“It’s always better to face your fears when you understand what you’re facing rather than to be presented with something out of the blue. And so, whilst there might have been some justification for secrecy in the initial stage of the investigation, I think that time had long passed.”