Five Sydney men who embraced violent jihad have been found guilty of plotting a terrorist attack on Australian soil, after a 10-month trial.

The men, aged between 25 and 44, have been in custody for nearly four years, since they and four others were arrested in south-west Sydney in 2005.

The five didn't react when the verdict was handed down today but it sparked angry scenes outside the purpose-built high-security court at Parramatta, in western Sydney, when supporters shouted and swore while watching on a screen outside.

During the 10-month trial, the court heard the five jihadists wanted to terrify and intimidate the Australian public and Government in retaliation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Crown argued each of the men had been a party to stockpiling chemicals to make explosives and had "step-by-step instructions on how to make bombs capable of causing large-scale death and destruction."

It was the prosecution case that the men had been in pursuit of "violent jihad which involved the application of extreme force and violence, including the killing of those who did not share the fundamentalist ... extremist, beliefs."

It can now be revealed the other four men arrested in 2005 pleaded guilty and have already been sentenced for their role in the conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack.

No direct evidence

The prosecution has never told the court what the supposed target for the alleged terrorist attack was.

The jury heard from 300 witnesses, examined 3,000 exhibits, watched 30 days of surveillance tapes and listened to 18 hours of phone intercepts; however, there was no direct evidence linking the accused to the terrorism plot.

Weapons were found in the south-west Sydney home of the accused ringleader, along with enough ammunition to keep firing for 37 hours.

Prosecutors said three of the accused had gone on paramilitary-style camps in far western New South Wales to prepare for an attack. The defence claimed the men were just hunting, camping and having fun.

The jury was also told that one of the accused had attended a paramilitary training camp in Pakistan run by the terrorist organisation, Lashkar-e-Toiba, but a key FBI witness told the court he could not be sure it was the man.

Over 16 months, the men used false names to acquire mobile phones and spoke in code, aware they were under surveillance.

They were also equipped with night-vision cameras and had "large quantities of literature which supported indiscriminate killing, mass murder and martyrdom."

Each of the accused possessed similar extremist material on their home computers, on topics including the September 11 attacks and ritual beheadings.

The Crown said they were influenced by the teachings of the Mujahadeen: "You kill us, we kill you ... you bomb us, so we bomb you."

The judge, Justice Anthony Whealy, concluded it was the defence case that the men's views were, "commonly held by many in the Australian Muslim community."

He told the jurors to put aside their prejudice and remember the Muslim faith was not on trial.

Trial almost aborted

The trial was almost derailed when it was revealed a relative of one of the accused had been coming to court, following the jurors to their cars and allegedly taking down detailed descriptions.

The defence called for the jury to be dismissed and the trial aborted over the young woman's surveillance.

But the jurors said the revelation would not affect their deliberations and the judge gave the green light for the trial to continue.

The woman told police she had acted entirely on her own.

The 23-day deliberation period was one of the longest in Australian legal history.

There were eight months of pre-trial arguments even before the trial got under way.

A raft of applications by the Crown and defence meant Justice Whealy had to deliver 65 judgements before a jury was even empanelled, including a raft of non-publication and suppression orders. He wrote 100 in total.