Ballroom blitz: Bike brawl on Gold Coast revisited 10 years on

A SERIAL ‘turncoat’ bikie lit the spark that set off the infamous Gold Coast ‘Ballroom Blitz’ in 2006. The following year he committed a crime that shocked the nation.

IT WAS the night of bikie violence that shattered the Gold Coast’s illusion of innocence forever.

Seven years before Bandidos big gun Jacques Teamo descended on Broadbeach with an army of thugs, sparking sweeping law changes that brought the bikie world to its knees, there was another night of mayhem that shocked Australia.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the wild night dubbed the ‘ballroom blitz’, a ferocious frenzy of violence which left five people in hospital and hundreds of innocent bystanders cowering under tables or fleeing in terror.

CBD KILLER: HUDSON FUELLED BY DRUGS, ANGER BEFORE SHOOTING

A grand ballroom at one of the Gold Coast’s most lavish resorts was virtually destroyed in a tornado of flying tables, chairs, knives and bullets.

By the time the dust settled, almost a dozen bikies had been arrested for charges ranging from assault to attempted murder.

BIKIES were nothing new to the Gold Coast, which by the early 2000s already had a reputation as a glitzy tourist destination with a dark side.

But the bikies had always defended their actions by saying they took care of their own — and their enemies, away from prying eyes. Public displays of violence were rare.

A shootout between rival gangs in a Tugun park in the 1980s was a distant memory that only the oldest of bikies and police officers remembered.

But that all changed on March 18, 2006.

Unlike the Broadbeach Brawl, which was allegedly sparked by a love triangle, the Ballroom Blitz took root from something far more sacred — a breach of the bikie brotherhood.

Christopher Wayne Hudson. Picture: Supplied

Christopher Wayne Hudson was the epitome of the young bull.

He’d joined the Black Uhlans gang on the southern Gold Coast in his early 20s but found the older members too boring for his liking. He wanted more action.

The gang’s hierarchy had wiser heads and it was with their blessing that Hudson left to join the Finks in 2005.

There he was reunited with long-time friend Nick ‘The Knife’ Forbes.

The two had known each other for years and worked together as nightclub bouncers.

However, it wasn’t long before Hudson was on the move again.

The Hells Angels, an international gang with a heavy presence in Brisbane, wanted a slice of the Gold Coast’s booming drug trade.

They enlisted Hudson with a view to him becoming a major figure in the gang’s Gold Coast chapter.

The Finks were less than impressed.

ON THE night of the Ballroom Blitz, Hudson was among a group of about 15 Hells Angels’ gang members at a kickboxing tournament at the Royal Pines Resort.

The Finks knew they were going to be there. It was payback time.

The police knew they were going to be there too, after a tip-off that the Hells Angels would be at the fight night and ‘there could be trouble’.

Terry Goldsworthy was the detective senior sergeant in charge of Burleigh Criminal Investigation Branch at the time.

Uniformed officers were stationed at the venue and Goldsworthy did a walk-through with two other detectives about 8pm.

Terry Goldsworthy.

“There was a group of Hells Angels there, but they were just sitting there watching the fights,” he recalls.

“We stayed about half an hour and then we left the uniformed guys there.”

Goldsworthy had just clocked off for the night when he got the phone call that ‘all hell had broken loose’.

“I thought the guys were winding me up because it had been so quiet when we were there,” he recalls. “But it was mayhem.

“It was still fairly chaotic when we got there. The place was a shambles and the place looked like a bomb had hit it.”

From the carnage, video footage and dozens of witness accounts painted the picture of what happened.

A group of some 43 Finks had entered the venue and made a beeline straight for the Hells Angels and in particular, Hudson.

After the briefest exchange of words, fists and furniture start flying.

It takes less than a minute for 1500 spectators to flee screaming from the room, leaving about 30 combatants trying to destroy each other.

For Forbes and Hudson, their long-time friendship is in tatters as the gangs tear into each other on the edge of the boxing ring.

Fink Tyson Ward is shown in the video footage laying in to Hudson with a flurry of punches.

Then others join in.

In just five minutes it’s all over.

Nick 'The Knife' Forbes leaving the Southport Watchhouse.

Vastly outnumbered at the height of the frenzy, the two uniformed police officers restore calm and call for back-up.

Two off-duty officers who were in the crowd helped restore order (they were officially commended for their efforts at a ceremony earlier this year).

Hudson had been shot in the back and jaw.

Two other bikies were also shot and two more sustained stab wounds.

A civilian, a Sydney teenager, was also shot in the foot as he hid under a table.

They were taken to hospital and placed under police guard.

Hudson had been shot by senior Finks member Shane Bowden.

Ward later admitted attacking Hudson but didn’t know he had already been shot at the time.

Ward was charged with assault and fined $3000.

Bowden was charged with the attempted murder of his former gangmate as well as assaulting the fight night’s promoter, Ryutara ‘Ray’ Matsumura.

Finks member Shane Scott Bowden.

BOWDEN and Forbes spent a month evading authorities before calmly presenting themselves to police in Surfers Paradise.

Bowden was eventually sentenced to six years’ jail for his role in the incident.

Forbes was handed an 18-month sentence for assault.

Hudson was charged with affray — police-speak for brawling, but the case was dropped when prosecutors failed to offer any evidence in court.

He would face far more serious charges just a year later.

Jim Keogh, who would become the Gold Coast’s police superintendent in the weeks that followed before being appointed to head the bikie-busting taskforce formed after the Broadbeach brawl seven years later, said the Ballroom Blitz changed the playing field for criminal gangs.

“It was probably the biggest turf war display the Gold Coast has ever seen,” he said.

“It was a reminder how fierce the bikies were about controlling their areas and a stark awakening to the extremes they were prepared to go to.”

While debate rages over the fate of the controversial VLAD laws introduced after the Broadbeach Brawl, Goldsworthy believes good policing can still punish the bikies.

“In a way it was amazing to see the reaction to the Broadbeach incident and all the law changes that followed that,” he said.

“Because we had something much more serious 10 years ago and we dealt with it using the laws we had.”

Tournament promoter Ray Matsumura.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Anthony Hudson

Just over a year after the Blitz, Hudson went on a shooting spree in the middle of Melbourne, killing solicitor Brendan Keilar, 43, and wounding Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard when they rushed to the aid of Kaera Douglas, an exotic dancer and Hudson’s then-girlfriend.

She was also shot but survived.

The killer behind Melbourne’s horrific CBD shooting was tortured by Hells Angels bikies before he surrendered to justice, Newscorp revealed in 2009.

Hudson, on the run from police after a drug-fuelled rampage, was chained up while he was punished.

Senior members used a blowtorch to remove a Hells Angels tattoo from his arm, The Herald Sun reported.

He is serving a life sentence but is eligible for parole in 2042.

Nick Forbes

Forbes has had several run-ins with the law since the blitz. Last year he was arrested and charged with drug trafficking in Brisbane’s north as part of a Taskforce Maxima operation.

He is out on bail awaiting trial.

Shane Bowden

Moved to Victoria after the former LNP government introduced the controversial VLAD laws.

Last year the Finks’ national sergeant-at-arms pleaded guilty to a home invasion in South Yarra and will remain in jail until at least 2018.

Terry Goldsworthy

Goldsworthy left the police service in 2013 and is now an assistant professor of criminology at Bond University.

Jim Keogh

Superintendent Keogh spent more than a decade in senior positions within Gold Coast police.

He was transferred to Brisbane last year.

Originally published as Ballroom blitz: Bike brawl on Gold Coast revisited 10 years on