Deadline: Bandidos’ thoroughly modern trip to Ballarat

Ballarat locals had no need to fret when the Bandidos roared into town, with the thoroughly modern trip kicking off with a Welcome to Country ceremony.

The Bandidos roar through Ballarat. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Mark Buttler and Andrew Rule with the latest crime buzz.

Born to be mild

Ballarat locals who shuttered the windows and locked up their daughters last weekend need not have bothered.

There’s traditionally been trepidation among some in the community when a bikie club comes to town, but it was unwarranted in the case of the thoroughly modern Bandidos’ trip to Victoria’s gold capital.

The 400 who hit the road from around Australia had converged for what they called an annual general meeting, rather than the more common description of a “run”.

“I think the only drama was one of the boys dropped his toothbrush in the toilet,” club liaison officer Grey Norman said.

Things opened on Saturday with a Welcome to Country ceremony performed by Barry Gilson from the local Waddawurrung tribe.

National Presidente Big Tony and Wadawurrung Tribe Representative Barry Gilson.

A traditional Maori welcome — in traditional Ballarat weather — followed before members headed to the local cemetery to pay their respects to fallen comrades.

Something called a “police processing exercise” in which the riders — under the leadership of national presidente Big Tony — were checked was then held at the car park of the city’s greyhound track.

So what happens at an outlaw motorcycle gang AGM?

Well, Mr Norman said the first point to make was that the Bandidos are not an OMCG, something police appear to not always agree with.

The Bandidos ad to the Ballarat community. Picture: Supplied

“We’re a proprietary limited company registered with ASIC and we have been for 25 years. They can call us what they like,” he said.

“To be deemed a criminal organisation is a formal process. That has never occurred.”

Even the customary bikie night-life appears to have altered significantly.

Mr Norman said you’d be far more likely to have a night of excessive boozing and “dancing girls” at an end-of-season footy trip.

The Bandido crew enjoyed dinner at a Lazy Moe’s before taking in some live acoustic songs from the 1970s and 80s.

“There’s nothing worse than some loud headbanger music where you can’t hear the fella next to you,” Mr Norman said.

Police confirmed they had no beef with the Bandido visit and the club has even placed a local newspaper ad thanking locals for their hospitality and apologising for any inconvenience out on the roads.

The wild man and the sea

He’s an underworld figure known for his love of big city life.

Deadline’s best guess would be that the closest he’s ever come to living in the country might be staying in a low-security jail towards the end of a prison stretch.

But the word is that the tough guy has decided it’s time for a lifestyle change amid these turbulent gangland times.

He’s upped stumps and left the big smoke, much to the bemusement of locals in a sleepy coastal town.

That hasn’t meant our man has had to abandon the good life and he’s already helped the post-Covid revival of some of the more high-priced venues along our state’s magnificent coast.

The reasons for the big move are as yet unclear.

The underworld figure has opted for a sea change from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Not so fast, fellas!

The homicide squad would have been excused for setting up a branch office at Tullamarine in recent weeks.

Their detectives have clearly spent a lot of time out there interrupting the last-minute holiday plans of some young gents about to head to the other side of the globe in the aftermath of a fatal stabbing at West Heidelberg.

Things never quite got off the ground for the four suspects.

On October 19, investigators grabbed the first, an 18-year-old at the terminal as he got ready to jet off.

A week later, a 17-year-old all ready to leave home and see the world was detained, followed by another on November 1.

Then, on November 15, another 17-year-old was arrested before he got to the tarmac.

A total of nine people have been arrested over the altercation in North Crescent on the morning of October 16 in which a 25-year-old Thomastown man was killed.

Some are also allegedly involved in the kidnapping of a 20-year-old man from Reservoir in the same period.

Foreign travel has been quite popular with teenagers under scrutiny in major crime cases this year.

Two are still somewhere overseas after making a hasty departure in the wake of June’s bungled attempt on the life of Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim at his cousin’s funeral.

There’ll be no need to book the SkyBus if they do return.

Police would be more than happy to provide a lift back to Spencer St when the time arrives.

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Coroners not loving life

Coroners spend their working lives thinking about death.

By retirement age, they all tend to look decidedly corpse-like, presumably for similar reasons that us mere mortals begin to look like our dogs as we get older.

This week, some of them are contemplating their own mortality even more than usual.

Last week’s Asia Pacific Coroners Society knees-up on the Gold Coast (highlights included a session called “Show and Tell of Post Mortem Imaging”) sadly became a Covid super spreader event.

“I was the only one wearing an N95 mask,” one attendee wrote.

At least one interstate inquest has been derailed. Deadline extends its condolences to the bank accounts of all the barristers affected.

Hopefully nobody has to prepare a report for the Coroner.

Bronzed Aussie

There’s a lot of talk about Premier Dan Andrews being immortalised with a bronze statue if he wins next weekend’s state election.

Deadline has it on good authority that he’s been beaten to the punch by a notoriously difficult prisoner who has recently conferred the bronzing honour on himself for the umpteenth time.