“I’VE got a mortgage, a four-month-old baby and a wife on maternity leave and there’s no more money – you name it, it’s happening,” brickie’s labourer Denis Murphy said yesterday, while packing up his tools at a Beechwood site.

Twin Waters estate at South Nowra was eerily quiet yesterday morning. There were no circular saws screaming, no blaring radios and certainly no whistling tradesmen.

The few tradies who were on site had little to smile about, contemplating their futures as they packed up equipment.

Mr Murphy said the mood was disheartening.

A bricklayer on the same job said they found out about the Beechwood collapse when a roof tiler drove past and said he had been told not to sign any more cheques.

“This is going to affect a lot of people.

“When you look at the big picture, it’s huge.

“But we’re in the dark, so we’ll wait and see,” he said.