Newcastle Nomads: The bikie clubhouse in Chinchen St, Islington to make way for townhouses

Police raids, kneecappings and epic parties that stretched on for days. Step inside the former HQ of Newcastle’s faded Nomads before the wrecking ball relegates it to history.

It has been the scene of multiple kneecappings, arson attacks, police raids and loud parties measured by the days, not hours.

But the long-held bastion of Newcastle’s oldest bikie gang, the Nomads, has slid into the history books a little like its once gruff occupants, quietly making way for inner-city living and a quieter way of life.

The Nomads headquarters in Chinchen Street, Islington during its heyday

The high brick walls and cast iron gates which had greeted passers-by on Chinchen Street, Islington for decades have been replaced with construction fences and a dirt patch.

In its place will be four smart-looking townhouses after the site was sold in 2018 for a reported $820,000.

It was two years earlier that proved the beginning of the end for the Nomads and their infamous headquarters in a city they thought they had ruled with an iron fist for years.

Inside the clubhouse during a police raid in 2016

Newcastle detectives were joined by the anti-bikie cops from the then-called Strike Force Raptor to raid the premises for one of the last times, using a rarely-used and 75-year-old piece of legislation to sledgehammer their way through the weatherboard residence.

The Restricted Premises Act (1943) was originally written to keep spies from learning the nation’s secrets inside Sydney’s brothels and sly-grog shops.

The clubhouse as it was decked out during the 2016 police raids

But the legislation was tinkered, and it meant bikies couldn’t keep hanging around each other or face court orders, and gave police powers to turn up at any time without a warrant.

Similar warrants across the state saw scores of similar bikie clubhouses shut down. But rarely did it mean as much as at 15 Chinchen Street, Islington.

The Nomads had been the kings of the one-percenters in the state’s second biggest city for a generation, leaving the Gladiators with Maitland and Coalfields and the Life and Death gang with Lake Macquarie.

The weatherboard building had been refurbished inside to the Nomads’ liking

But a huge police investigation in 2001 would leave lasting issues within the chapter, and arguably malleed a slow beginning of the end for the Nomads.

Strike Force Sibret broke the Nomads’ back, charging several of their highest ranking members with running an eye-watering amphetamines ring.

The Newcastle chapter’s then sergeant-at-arms, Richard James Walsh, would admit to buying 50kg of amphetamine and cutting it up to make 450kg to sell.

He was sentenced to a maximum 32 years in jail, with a minimum of 24 years.

Back when bikies had bikes. Inside the Islington clubhouse of the Nomads

In 2004, police were again called to Chinchen St after reports of gunshots. Two Newcastle chapter members had suffered bullet wounds to both of their kneecaps.

When police arrived, they found at least one member hurriedly trying to wipe pools of blood from the floors.

Detectives would allege that an internal spat with Sydney-based Nomads was the reason for the mayhem, charging well-known bikies Sam Ibrahim, among others.

Sam Ibrahim would be acquitted of pulling the trigger at trial.

The clubhouse also survived an arson attack in 2011, when a crude attempt failed to fire.

And then, in 2017 and after the Raptor raid, it was attacked during the midst of a turf war as other gangs recognised the Nomads were not the strength they once were.

The old Nomads bikie clubhouse in Chin Chen Street, Islington, has been bulldozed to make way for four townhouses. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

The romance had long left the clubhouse, which boasted a pool at the back and legendary parties.

“You only had to mention Chinchen St to anyone with any knowledge of the darker side of this city and the only word that came out of their mouths was “Nomads’’,’’ a former senior detective said on Monday.

“Everyone knew the clubhouse was there, and the bikies actually liked it that way.

“It grew their reputation of being tough and intimidating and all the rest of that nonsense.’’

An artist impression of four townhouses to be built at 13-15 Chinchen Street, Islington, the site of the former Nomads bikie gang's Newcastle chapter clubhouse.

By late last year, the writing was on the wall for the old clubhouse. A development application was approved last October for four modern-looking townhouses - and there is no suggestion that the developers have had anything to do with the Nomads or any other bikie gang.