[2] Known by the names "The Honoured Society", L'Onorata Societa or La Famiglia to Italians but more simply as the Mafia to most Australians, the 'ndrangheta has controlled Italian-Australian organised crime all along the East Coast of Australia since the early 20th century.

[7][8] A Victoria Market stallholder named Liborio Benvenuto was eventually to take over as godfather, a position he held until his death of natural causes in 1988.

[4] In 1964, investigations by Victoria Police into the Victoria Market murders prompted the Victorian Government to invite two overseas experts on Italian organised crime to assist, John T. Cusack, a district supervisor of the United States' Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and Dr Ugo Macera, an assistant commissioner of police in Calabria.

The Cusack and Macera reports revealed the existence of the Society in Melbourne, warning that without action being taken, within 25 years they would have diversified from their stand-over tactics in the fruit and vegetable industries and have monopolies in such fields as "labour racketeering, wholesale distribution of alcoholic and soft drinks, the importation of olive oil, tomato paste and cheese, the baking and distribution of Italian baked goods, the vending machine business, the monopolistic ownership of night clubs and taverns, musical recording and record distributing companies, model and theatrical booking agencies and building and road construction companies".

[4] The recommendations of the Cusack, Macera and Brown reports were ignored and their warnings came true, the 'ndrangheta diversified into drugs and other organised crime and invested heavily in legitimate businesses to launder its profits.

[4] In 1982, a Mildura greengrocer, Dominic Marafiote informed police of the location of local marijuana crops and the names of several 'ndrangheta bosses involved with them.

[4] In 1990, Pasquale "Il Principale" Barbaro, a Canberra mafia boss-turned police informant, named Rosario 'Ross' Gangemi as the "de facto" head of the Honoured Society [citation needed].

When Liborio Benvenuto knew he was close to death he nominated Giuseppe "Joe" Arena to succeed him as Melbourne godfather [citation needed].

Michele Scriva, another Gangemi associate, committed Melbourne's first mafia hit [citation needed], stabbing Giuseppe "Fat Joe" Versace 91 times in 1945.

Gangemi died at 83 years old on 2 July 2008 of natural causes, there were over 250 mourners at his funeral, one of them being the high-profile member of the Carlton Crew, Mick "The Don" Gatto.

[3][11] Italian authorities believe that former Western Australian mayor of the city of Stirling, Tony Vallelonga, is an associate of Giuseppe Commisso, boss of the Siderno clan of the 'Ndrangheta.

[14] A June 2015 report by BBC News discussed an investigation by Fairfax Media and Four Corners which alleged that "the 'Ndrangheta, runs a drugs and extortion business worth billions of euros" in Australia and that "politicians have been infiltrated by the Calabrian mafia".

[18] In April of 2023, it was reported that the leader of the Melbourne 'ndrine, one of the aforementioned "prominent Australians" named by Italian authorities in Operation Eyphemos, had stepped down from his role.