Wadeye gang members say they are ‘born into a gang’ as police intervene to stop crime

A car theft victim was sent a picture of his ute in flames courtesy of the ‘Jovi Boys’. Discover the origins of these gangs and what drives them into crime.

Young Territorians have been bragging about their alleged offending by sharing videos and photos on TikTok.

Red and blue lights flash on the profile of a young TikTok user, sharing snippets of an alleged police chase after stealing a car from Darwin.

Other videos broadcast show stills of young men proudly posing with allegedly stolen cars, often bogged in the mud of a dirt road.

In one alleged incident shared on Facebook a car thief contacted their victim with a photo of their ute on fire, courtesies “from Bon Jovi boys”.

A man alleged a 'Jovi Boy' bragged about stealing his ute and setting it alight.

It is social posts and videos like these that have made the names of Wadeye gangs notorious among Darwin Facebook groups.

NT Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy confirmed on Wednesday police had arrested 10 people in relation to a recent series of car thefts.

“We’re managing that network,” Mr Murphy told Mix 104.9 on Wednesday.

Young Territorians from Wadeye have been bragging about their alleged offending by sharing videos and photos on TikTok.

He said often those hijinks were led by a ringleader “well known to police” and about four “followers”.

“We need to intervene with the followers to correct their behaviour and thinking crime is OK,” Mr Murphy said.

He said the “bigger picture” in addressing gang activity lay with other agencies across government.

“If they’re bored, they’re looking for something to do so they go steal a car and say ‘lets get in a pursuit with police’,” he said.

Young Territorians from Wadeye have been bragging about their alleged offending by sharing videos and photos on TikTok.

“Then they brag about it on social media.

“Which just manifests into one-upmanship.”

While the TikTok, Instagram and Facebook posts are a new phenomena, these gangs have been active for decades with their origins traced back to the most disadvantaged council in Australia, 400km southwest of Darwin.

INSIDE THE GANGS OF WADEYE

Since the 1980s, gangs with musically themed names have been active in Wadeye — with the likes of Judas Priest, Fear Factory, Evil Warriors gang, Manowar, Metallica, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi and the German Boys carving out their claim to the tiny remote West Daly community.

An Australian Institute of Criminology 2013 report says the rise of the gangs 40 years ago came as Wadeye’s “population was rapidly growing, houses became overcrowded, there were few job opportunities and a sense of futility about the future was pervading the town”.

Four decades later and the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics found West Daly Regional Council was the worst ranked local government area in Australia on the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage.

The West Daly Council’s latest Region Plan 2023-24 found that 42 per cent of its population was unemployed, while overcrowding rates meant that 50 per cent of all homes had at least six people in them.

“We face many challenges with low household incomes, health, and housing,” Mayor Ralph Narburup wrote in the report.

A sign outside the community shop in Wadeye NT.

Wadeye gang members told AIC researchers it was these pressures, alongside family connections, that led them to join various gangs.

In the 2013 study, eight Wadeye gang members in prison described how they felt they were born into — rather than joined — the criminal associations.

“No choice but to be a gang member. Family thing. But don’t want kids and grandson to go to jail,” one member told researchers.

Fear Factory logos graffitied onto a fence in Wadeye.

“You are born into a gang and join when you’re a young boy,” another said.

Many of the gang members said family connections, language groups, culture and territory often defined whose side they joined and why it was so difficult to leave.

With more than 20 clans and seven language groups in Wadeye, one gang leader told researchers the divisions were “not gang but tribe — just described as gangs”.

One of the gangs active in Wadeye is Metallica SFDP.

The AIC report concluded that supporting local Elders and younger adult mentors to re-engage young residents would “be more fruitful than directing energies at costly incarceration and management of recidivism”.

As one gang member said, the solution was to keep young people busy through sport, proper work and diversion programs.

“Lots of domestic violence, gunja, sniffing, can, petrol, fighting, angry — need anger management — relational problems, grog,” they said.

“Nothing to do after school — danger period.”

RECOVERY AND RENEWAL HOPES FOR WEST DALY

Fears of car thefts, wayward teens and break-ins across Darwin comes as the West Daly region grapples a year on from the “humanitarian situation” which saw hundreds of families displaced by violence.

In May 2022 fighting in the community of just 3000 resulted in damage to 125 homes, displacing about 500 people.

Damaged housing in Wadeye, NT. This property is understood to have been damaged in connection with a family/gang dispute about two years ago.

The West Daly Regional Council Regional Plan 2023-24 said among the council’s main challenges was the unrest, social disruption, intergenerational disadvantage, unlawful entries and violence.

Twelve months on, an NT government spokesman said millions of dollars had been spent to rebuild the community.

He said all 125 damaged houses had been repaired, $2.3m was spent to upgrade the Fossil Head homeland, while a Return to Country program with Larrakia Nation and Thamarrurr Development Corporation had brought stranded residents home.

NT Police and the Thamarrurr Development Corporation (TDC) helped more than 30 people return to their Wadeye homes as part of Operation Tarn. Picture: Supplied

The spokesman said the wet season emergency management welfare group response had built four emergency shelters at Fossil Head, alongside new drop toilets, repairs to existing homes and infrastructure and road upgrades.

He said in nearby Peppimenarti — which also suffered from violent unrest — a Top End Remote Worker Safety Coordination Committee continued to meet to ensure the school, health clinic and police station remained open.

“The Northern Territory government and the commonwealth are working to ensure a program is provided to engage youth,” the spokesman said.

On the ground in Wadeye.

Thank you to the Kurdu Thithay Diminin for providing such a warm welcome.

I’ll be down at the main oval at 5:30pm to watch the footy - looking forward to seeing the local community again. pic.twitter.com/WBDp3asFWt

— Natasha Fyles (@NatashaFylesMLA) April 20, 2023

The latest budget also committed $19m to replace a converted shipping container police station with a permanent structure at Peppimenarti.

Peppimenarti was one of 14 remote stations set up by the federal government during the 2007 NT Intervention.

Last year, the NT Police Association criticised that 11 of the Intervention-era stations had been left to rot, with President Paul McCue saying one prisoner at Peppimenarti had “inadvertently put their foot through a (cell) floor”.

“The new Peppimenarti permanent police complex will include a new contemporary police station, holding facilities, government employee housing and visiting officers’ quarters to support a permanent police presence in Peppimenarti,” a government spokesman said.

Originally published as Wadeye gang members say they are ‘born into a gang’ as police intervene to stop crime