Lawyers for the 17-year-old, who was arrested after a police raid on his home in Melbourne on May 8, had wanted his case dealt with by the Children's Court which can only impose a maximum three-year jail sentence.

The teenager, who appeared in court via videolink from a youth detention centre with a thick black beard and wearing a white T-shirt, now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if found guilty in the Supreme Court of the charge of planning to commit a terrorist attack.

In his judgment handed down on Wednesday, Justice Terry Forrest said that during the May 8 raid on the teenager's home by joint counter-terrorism team police officers, they found a number of suspect devices. These included: three elbow-shaped lengths of pipe with caps fitted suspected to be pipe bombs; four elbow-shaped lengths of pipe and eight caps not fitted together; a plastic container containing nails; three boxes of screws, powder later found to be a mix of ground match heads and sugar; pressure cookers; pieces of intertwined wire; a computer and notebooks containing letters or journal entries apparently written by the teenager.

Justice Forrest said the three suspected pipe bombs were deemed too dangerous for further examination and were removed from the house and destroyed in a controlled explosion.

The judge said an Australian  Federal Police technical and forensic intelligence assessment report revealed it was likely that at the time of the teenager's arrest, he was part way through the construction of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

"Specifically the report stated that it was likely the plaintiff [the teenager] was constructing 'elbow joint pipe' type IEDs and possibly pressure cooker-type IEDs," Justice Forrest said.

"Analysis of the computer [seized from the plaintiff's bedroom] and the mobile phone [in the plaintiff's possession at the time of his arrest] revealed that the devices had been used to view an Islamic State [IS] propaganda magazine and website."

The judge said a number of files had been encrypted and police claimed the teenager, who cannot be identified, told them he could not remember the password. He denied this.

When the AFP digital forensics team was able to uncover the password to the files, they found documents titled "Pressure Cooker Backpack Bomb with Switch Detonator" and "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mum".

"These documents set out in detail the materials and procedure required to prepare elbow pipe and pressure cooker IEDs," the judge said.

Justice Forrest said police claimed messages from the teenager's Facebook page and letters or journal entries found in notebooks seized at the teenager's home allegedly demonstrated how he held extreme political and religious views.

The case came before Justice Forrest after the teenager's lawyers had asked for a judicial review of a Children's Court judge's original decision to send the case to the Supreme Court because of exceptional circumstances.

The Children's Court judge said the case had to go to the higher court because the charge of planning a terrorist attack carried a maximum penalty of life imprisonment; the teenager had allegedly accessed material provided by a terrorist organisation, including material instructing the construction of IEDs; the teenager possessed either all or nearly all of the materials required to make IEDs; the teenager's notes and Facebook postings indicated a degree of radicalisation; the teenager appeared to have engaged in a significant degree of planning towards making the IEDs; and while the teenager did not have any prior criminal history, "there appeared to be past expressions of apparent pro-jihadist, ISIS supportive sentiments".

Justice Forrest said he agreed with the Children's Court judge's decision and dismissed the teenager's lawyers' application.

The teenager is also facing charges of possessing things connected with a terrorist act and failing to provide a password after the police raid.