A history of Melbourne’s violent street gangs
From the distinctive Sharpies of the sixties to the Dandy Turks of the early ’90s, gangs have long inflicted terror on Melbourne’s streets. And some of them are making a comeback.
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Melbourne youth gangs are not new for the city.
Decades before the Next Gen Shooters (NGS) and Eastside Drillers terrorised the streets, a suburban gangs crime wave swept Melbourne with violent brawls and terrifying assaults.
There were clashes between the north and southeast as well as running battles in the western suburbs.
Here’s some of the notorious gangs that roamed Melbourne’s streets.
Sharpies
In the late ’60s, groups of working-class teenagers called Sharpies or Sharps prowled the streets.
The well-known Thomastown Sharps and the Blackburn South Sharps were among the most prominent of the Melbourne ‘Sharpie’ gangs.
They were characterised by their distinct fashion with some members having conny-top haircuts, Staggers jeans and chisel-toe shoes.
They loved getting involved in street brawls and one of the Thomastown members known as Big Louie spent some time with Chopper Read in Pentridge Prison.
From 1970 to 1980, the second wave of Sharpies, sometimes referred to as ‘Skinheads’, became prominent, following tough rock’n’roll bands including The Angels and AC/DC.
Oakleigh Wogs
Popular in the ’80s and ’90s, this gang consisted mostly of Greek youths who lived and went to school in the area.
They were mostly unemployed and involved in street brawls and peddling drugs later in the ’90s.
Most members were kickboxers and bodybuilders and their rivals included the Lebanese Tigers, who were equally as violent.
They would hang out mostly in Oakleigh’s city centre and at Chadstone shopping centre.
They have re-emerged, with several youth members taking part in a vicious brawl in Eaton Mall last year.
Lebanese Tigers
This gang was also rife in the ’80s with members mostly from Melbourne’s inner-north.
Most youths specialised in martial arts and would often use these skills to fight instead of weapons.
The groups began as school playground protection against racist name-calling, but later became involved in more serious crime including a major brawl with a rival gang involving more than 100 people in Melbourne’s CBD in January 1982.
3174
Postcode for Noble Park where the gang was from, 3174 was made up of mostly Latino youth back in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
They wore blue bandannas and would regularly fight with the Hills Posse (Endeavour Hills gang) who wore red bandannas and MC-3, a gang mostly consisting of Vietnamese members based in Springvale.
They would graffiti “3174” in Noble Park and surrounding southeastern suburbs to signify their presence.
In 2018, a gang called the Reds emerged in Endeavour Hills and were known to terrorise the surrounding shopping centres and organise brawls via social media at parks.
Broady Boys
The exploits of teenage gangs like the Broady Boys from Broadmeadows have made headlines since the 1970s.
The first generation of them began when many dropped out of school during the recession of the late ’70s.
They were known as one of the most violent gangs in Melbourne and would organise fights with rival groups at shopping centres and outside railway stations.
They made a resurgence in the early 2000s, consisting mostly of Turkish and Lebanese teenagers.
Dandy and Broady Turks
Consisting of members with Turkish backgrounds, these gangs were rife in the ’90s and early 2000s.
The Dandy Turks would organise fights with another gang known as the Kambo Klowns (a Cambodian gang) from Springvale.
They would often fight outside Dandenong Plaza’s old Village Cinema entrance near the food court.
The Broady Turks would also organise fights at Broadmeadows shopping centre and around train stations.
They would all wear red jackets emblazoned with the Turkish flag.
Sandy Boys
The Sandy boys, who were prominent in the ’80s and early ’90s, would meet and hang out at Southland shopping centre and then run amok at surrounding train stations.
They often spray-painted trains with “Sandy Boys” tag to mark their territory.
In warmer months the group would hang at local beaches and run amok, using it as a meeting place to get drunk or fight with the West Side Sharps and other rival gangs.
They had nicknames including Seagull, Spud and Lucky.
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