Seeing an opportunity to expand their drug network, Finks bikie gang members set themselves up in the Hunter and Newcastle area to fill the void the Rebels had left behind.

But their move was not at all appreciated by the Nomads — a gang with a strong and deep-rooted presence in the region.

Tensions increased when a number of Nomads began to “patch over” to the Finks in mid-2016.

Police say they were aware of the simmering feud but they realised they had a real problem on their hands when a chance meeting between the Finks and the Nomads erupted into an all-out brawl at a Newcastle service station.

The Hunter bikie war was on.

A few months later the conflict reached new heights and there was a series of tit-for-tat arson attacks, bashings and drive-by shootings that culminated in the Nomads’ Islington clubhouse being hit with a hail of gunfire in March 2017.

NSW Police criminal groups squad commander, Detective Superintendent Deb Wallace, says it was at this time officers from the then gangs squad, Strike Force Raptor, and the state’s northern region aligned to fight back.

These officers would now work under the banner of Strike Force Batterson.

Wallace says there was a period of relative calm until July 2017, but then a series of up to 20 retaliation attacks followed.

Gang members carried out drive-by shootings of houses, assaults and fire-bombings.

It’s all about upmanship and retaliation.

“It may have started off as a turf war, but it seems as if they’ve lost sight of the actual dispute and are just trying to get one-up on the other — which is almost childlike,” Wallace tells Saturday Extra.

“But, that’s what makes them dangerous. These are fairly low-level bikies and somewhat unsophisticated in their thinking. They’re not considering the consequences of their actions.

“You’d have to expect that, if you go and shoot up the home of a rival, especially if there are children in there, retaliation is likely.”

Police made their presence known, making more than 130 arrests of Finks and Nomads since the service station brawl, and have disrupted the bikies’ operations with a series of firearm prohibition orders and the shutting down of two Nomads clubhouses at Islington and Muswellbrook, after the NSW Supreme Court ruled them “restricted premises”.

Wallace says many senior members of the gang base themselves in metro areas.

“In the higher ranks, they are more business-minded and will try to fly under the radar, so their bottom line isn’t impacted,” she says.

“But at the lower end, they don’t have the same discipline, and when they are cowardly and irrational, it’s a big concern for us.”

Yet despite the arrests, disruptions and clubhouse closures, the violence continues. This year alone there have been more than half-a-dozen shootings in the Hunter Region linked to the Finks and Nomads feud.

In response to these shootings, Northern Region commander, Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell, says a strike force of locally based detectives has been set up to specifically target the escalating feud between the rival gangs.

“Northern Region established Strike Force Darnay to investigate recent public place shootings in the Hunter area, including incidents of arson and violence,” he tells Saturday Extra.

“We are investigating what is really a conflict between the Finks and Nomads in the Hunter Valley-Newcastle area and we will continue to proactively target members to curb their activity.

“We are fearful of their use of high-powered weapons. It’s pretty easy for a high-calibre projectile to pass through the wall of a house. These indiscriminate shots could seriously wound, or worse, fatally injure a neighbour, child or other innocent person because of the feud between these gangs,” Mitchell says.

Only a few weeks ago on March 1 the Maitland home of a jailed Finks bikie boss was shot up while his family were inside. Three days later another Finks member was shot in the leg as he sat on the lounge in his house at Thornton, near Maitland.

“As much as these gangs say ‘we don’t like this, we want to come to the peace table’ — the reality is they are still out there looking at opportunities to undertake acts of violence against the opposing gang,” he says.

Mitchell says the initial conflict stems from the Finks moving to the region.

“It’s all about retaliation and running organised criminal activity in the area,” he says.

But the bikies’ so-called “code of silence” prevents him from determining definitively why the recent spate of violence is occurring.

Anyone who can assist with information in regards to this ongoing investigation can contact Newcastle detectives or Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.