Four fires. One business. Seven weeks. If Queensland Police needed a definition of deliberate and coordinated criminal conduct, the Celeber Road tobacconist in Andergrove, Mackay, has provided it in real time.
As reported by 7News, the first blaze was reported at the rear of the shop at around 4.40am on January 13, with a crime scene declared after the fire was extinguished. The business was hit again on February 14, a fire discovered after the fact and reported to officers around 7.50am. A third incident occurred between 4.45am and 6am on February 18, causing minor damage. Then, on the night of February 27 into the early minutes of February 28, the fourth fire spread beyond the original target and damaged neighbouring businesses before emergency services brought it under control.
The CCTV footage released by Queensland Police is striking in its clarity and its brazenness. Two individuals, wearing masks and gloves, are visible near the business. One is dressed in a black and white checkered shirt. Separate frames show smoke, then flames, then an explosion as the fire takes hold. These are not opportunistic acts. The operational consistency across four separate nights, the concealment of identity, and the escalation to a fire that damaged neighbouring properties all point to a campaign rather than a crime of impulse.
The fundamental question is whether this is an isolated local grievance or a symptom of something much larger. The weight of evidence nationally suggests the latter. Queensland Police Service's Taskforce Masher was established specifically to investigate arson, theft, and wilful damage targeting tobacco and vape retailers across the state, with the Crime and Intelligence Command continuing to monitor organised crime groups and any links between arson, attempted arson attacks and related offending on tobacco stores in Queensland. The Andergrove attacks fit squarely within that pattern.
The broader context is sobering. There have been more than 250 firebombings of tobacconists and other shops across Australia since March 2023. In Victoria, the problem has reached a scale that demands its own name: the tobacco wars. Victoria Police report over 125 arson attacks and more than 100 arrests as of early 2025, with the illegal tobacco trade highly lucrative due to high taxation on legal tobacco. Criminal syndicates have been targeting rival tobacco shops and convenience stores suspected of selling illicit tobacco. Queensland has not been immune. Separate charges have been laid after arson attacks on tobacconists in Stanthorpe, Capalaba, and other locations across the state in recent months.
The counter-argument deserves serious consideration: not every attack on a tobacconist is necessarily linked to organised crime. Retail disputes, personal vendettas, and insurance fraud are all possibilities investigators must rule out. Police have made no public statement connecting the Andergrove fires to any syndicate, and basic fairness requires that those distinctions matter. Attribution without evidence is not analysis; it is speculation.
That said, strip away the talking points and what remains is a community in Andergrove that has watched its local shopping strip targeted four times in seven weeks, with nobody yet held to account. The fourth fire's spread to neighbouring properties means this is no longer just the tobacconist's problem. Other business owners and their livelihoods have been caught in the crossfire.
The Queensland government has moved aggressively on the illicit tobacco front, with Operation Major resulting in 148 stores being issued three-month closure orders and more than 11.8 million cigarettes, 1.7 tonnes of loose tobacco and 87,000 vapes seized in a 10-day operation. Legislative changes have given Queensland Health new enforcement powers. These are not trivial responses. But enforcement capacity and criminal deterrence are two different things, and a tobacconist in Andergrove being set alight four times suggests the latter still has some distance to travel.
Police are appealing to anyone with information or relevant footage to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or report online at crimestoppers.com.au. No one has been physically injured across any of the four incidents. That is, for now, the one piece of good news in an otherwise troubling picture from Mackay's northern suburbs.