A Victorian bricklayer who tried to murder two council workers after they went to his property to inspect illegally constructed buildings will spend at least seven-and-a-half years behind bars.
Jonas Black was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday after a lengthy dispute over the sheds turned violent at his remote bush block in May 2015.
The 46-year-old had been found guilty by a jury of trying to murder Gippsland Shire Council inspectors Matthew Patterson and Justin Eades on his one-acre property at Turtons Creek.
Outside court on Monday, Mr Patterson said he was relieved the ordeal was over.
He said in 95 per cent of cases people could keep illegally built structures if they applied retrospectively for planning permits, but Black had refused to do so.
"To think someone has planned an event like this ... now it is in the back of my mind when I'm out doing an inspection in a secluded part of the shire," the building surveyor told reporters in Melbourne.
In May last year, he and Mr Eades went to inspect four of five buildings known locally as Jonastown, which the council had ordered be demolished.
Before they arrived, Black dug a body-sized hole near a campsite about 4km away, which Justice Jane Dixon on Monday said was to be Mr Patterson's grave.
When the council workers entered one of his sheds, Black picked up a piece of scaffolding pipe and hit Mr Eades on the back of the head.
He subsequently struck Mr Patterson who grabbed a shovel and fought back, with both men managing to escape.
Mr Eades was airlifted to hospital with bruising and clots on the brain.
He's never returned to work and suffers post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and a loss of smell and taste.
Justice Dixon on Monday said Black's attack on Mr Patterson was the result of "homicidal thoughts and pre-planning".
He had, the judge said, "brooded over the matter (of the demolitions) to an irrational extent", fearing he'd lose the property and be declared bankrupt.
Justice Dixon said attacks against public officials had to be denounced in the strongest terms.
Before he was sentenced, Black told the judge he was worried about being jailed alongside "drug-affected inmates and sexual predators".
Black, a father of one, was sentenced to a total of 11.5 years in jail on the two attempted murder charges and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The latter charge was laid because he asked his fiancee to retrieve his boots after he was arrested as he was worried they'd be linked to the campsite near where he'd dug the grave-sized hole.