After a decade of violence, Melbourne’s most notorious nightclub may have met a fiery end

Residents who live near one of Melbourne’s most notorious nightclubs are used to late-night loud noises and drama, but on Thursday morning, they woke to wailing sirens and a building engulfed in flames.

Prahran nightclub Love Machine has been well known as a magnet for serious violence over the past five years – there have been fatal shootings, brawls, assaults, and now an arson attack.

Police on patrol in the area around Malvern Road and Chapel Street just after 2am on Thursday noticed smoke in the air when a member of the public flagged them down and said they’d seen flames in the club venue, which has been closed since September. Stonnington local area commander acting inspector Kim Bramwell said that when officers arrived at the scene, the building was “fully engulfed” in flames.

It took four minutes for the first fire crews to reach the club, with aerial appliances called in shortly after. A spokesperson from Fire Rescue Victoria said all efforts to battle the blaze were external, making direct access to the fire extremely difficult. In the ensuing hours, 45 firefighters and 14 appliances worked to contain the fire, which was deemed to be under control by 4.25am.

Two hours later, still unable to get inside the building, firefighters began ripping off roof panels, sending plumes of thick, black smoke into the air. The cause is still unknown, but organised crime figures have previously targeted the club.

Bramwell said the front roller door had been rammed to gain entry to the property in the early hours of the morning, but investigators hadn’t had a chance to enter the building to determine exactly how the fire broke out.

Detectives from the arson and explosives squad later confirmed two 20-litre jerry cans had been seized from the front of the building. Witnesses had also reported seeing two vehicles travelling in a convoy along Commercial Road 15 minutes before the blaze broke out.

“We’ve got a number of leads, including some images of some vehicles that have been [captured] leaving the area, and CCTV footage that we’re going to be reviewing to see if we can identify the offender,” Bramwell said.

“We have had a number of police interactions with the Love Machine [operators] over the last 12 months,” she said. “Everything is on the table at the moment.”

She said the nightclub had had “issues” with organised crime, and underworld figures have long been spotted partying at the venue. “We’re not saying that’s to blame at this stage, but that is definitely part of our investigation and one of our avenues of inquiry.”

In August last year, a stray bullet narrowly missed Gold Coast Suns player Jamarra Ugle-Hagan as he was entering a rideshare vehicle outside the club. He was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Months earlier, 30-year-old father Ruka Carlson was stabbed to death on Chapel Street after reportedly being chased from Love Machine, following an altercation involving a gun at the premises.

The venue is most infamous for a fatal drive-by shooting in 2019. In that incident, security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, and patron Richard Arow, 28, were killed when Jacob Elliott fired shots from a 32-calibre assault rifle into the crowd outside the club.

Elliott, 18, and Allan Fares, 22, were convicted of two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder over the shooting.

Elliott is the estranged son of slain bikie figure Nabil Maghnie, whose murder remains unsolved.

Following the string of violent incidents surrounding the venue, the club shut down in September 2025 after the venue’s operators allegedly failed to notify liquor licensing authorities that it had temporarily appointed a new director.

The company also faced separate enforcement action in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court the same month, when Liquor Control Victoria accused the club’s operators of further licensing breaches. The venue, according to charge sheets, failed to provide information about its patrons in May 2024, while also allegedly exceeding its permitted patron capacity in April 2024.

Sterling Nightclubs and its director Dhir Kakar were put on notice by the regulator in 2024, when the club was fined $20,000 for repeated licensing breaches between 2018 and 2023, including hosting a function during Melbourne’s COVID lockdown.

Nearby nightclub Lux, operated by the same company, was permanently closed in November 2024, also due to fire. There is no suggestion the operators had anything to do with either blaze. Police, however, said they would explore any possible links between the two incidents.

A phone number associated with Kakar is “currently not accepting phone calls”, but two underworld and nightclub sources have confirmed to this masthead that he is currently in India.

Several other businesses on the ground floor of the building have been forced to close, including a dental clinic that Bramwell said had been expecting patients on Thursday.

“They’re just devastated,” she said. “We are very lucky this occurred overnight, on a weeknight, rather than a weekend, especially Chapel Street being such a thriving entertainment precinct. We’re very lucky that there was no one there and there was no one hurt. That’s our saving grace at this moment.

“However, there could have been people there. There’s other businesses that could have been people there. So we’re very lucky.”

“We will get them [those responsible], we will find them, and we will identify them and get them through the justice system,” she said.

An arson chemist will determine the cause of the fire after it has been completely extinguished.

Anyone with information about Thursday’s blaze is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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