Luke Haslam and James Trappel arrived on site early Tuesday morning to find that overnight thieves had cut through a fence, driven through a paddock, broken locks, brackets and padlocks and helped themselves to the equipment from two trailers.

The frame of the building only went up on Monday and could only just be seen from the road, and while the nearest neighbour reported that her dog “went off” at about 10.30pm, so far police haven’t been able to collar the criminals.

Some of the items have redeeming features, such as the Milwaukee power tools all had pink paint on them, while the Makita tools all had yellow paint on them to distinguish them from others on larger sites.

“It was almost two full trailers of tools and equipment,” Mr Haslam said.

“The power tools, explosive guns, welders, laser levels, electric saws and lots of hand tools.” 

“We will eventually get most of it back through insurance but it has slowed us down.” 

“It is just something we shouldn’t have to worry about on a site like this but now we have to take everything with us.” 

One positive to come out of the ordeal was an outpouring of support from the community.

“We have had dozens of calls from other builders and tradies offering us tools to use,” Mr Haslam said.

“It has been unreal.”