One of four Melbourne men ordered to stand trial over an alleged plan to blow up a Sydney army base expressed delight at the deadly Black Saturday bushfires, a court has heard.
During secretly recorded police conversations about martyrdom and "facilitating" a "dream", one of the alleged terrorists, Saney Edow Aweys, 26, tells a friend: "the fires broke out in the whole country and all were happy".
The men also talk about doing "something very terrific for Allah" and "paradise".
One of the group, Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, walked around the perimeter of the Holsworthy army base to its entrance, police allege.
There is talk of guns and "training", court documents show.
A third member of the group, Yacqub Khayre, travelled to Kenya to obtain a fatwa - or religious ruling - to authorise a terrorist attack in Australia, police claim.
On Monday, Melbourne magistrate Peter Reardon committed Aweys, 26, of Carlton, Fattal, 33, who is in the Melbourne Remand Centre, Khayre, 22, of Meadow Heights, and Abdirahman Mahmoud Ahmed, 25, of Preston to trial.
All have pleaded not guilty and will face trial in the Victorian Supreme Court next year.
A fifth man, Nayef El Sayed, 25, of Glenroy, will face a contested committal hearing next May.
A police brief containing thousands of pages of documents about the case was released to the media on Monday.
In a telephone call intercepted by police, Aweys allegedly tells a friend the "filthy people" are being brought down hard by Allah.
"The whole nation is coming down, first the economy comes down first," he said.
"By Allah, factories shutting down, nothing here, mate, nothing, barely anything.
"By Allah, I've never seen Melbourne like this, then fire coming to them, no water, the water storage is empty.
"They are coping hard man. Thanks to Allah, thanks to Allah."
Police say amid the talk there was also action.
Fattal is recorded on closed circuit television catching a train to Holsworthy station in Sydney.
He walks around the boundary of the Holsworthy army base and to its entrance.
In a recorded conversation two days later, El Sayed allegedly tells Fattal he is going to talk in riddles.
Fattal asks "will the business work out ... Allah willing, the bricklaying and so on?"
El Sayed replies: "Yes. Yes. Thanks to Allah. There is a lot of work thanks to Allah, but we only need a mixer and few things as you know."
Fattal tells him he "saw the condition there ... it's something that's very easy ... to enter the work it's easy. I went there, I strolled."
El Sayed replied: "Allah willing. We want Allah to facilitate it for us."
Fattal tells him his mission is the "afterlife".
The police documents say Aweys also discussed the legalities of martyrdom with a Somali sheik.
The four men will next appear in the Victorian Supreme Court for a pre-trial directions hearing on November 9.
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