Australia’s real Romper Stomper unmasked

Andrew Kirby has spoken for the first time about his role in the racist reign of terror that inspired the cult classic Romper Stomper. Watch the exclusive video and hear the audio.

Andrew Kirby reluctantly rolls up his sleeve.

“It’s the only one I have left,” Kirby says as he looks down at the Swastika tattoo on his forearm.

“And soon it will be gone too. I’ve almost saved up enough to get it down.”

Kirby has paid a heavy price for being a racist.

Let’s start with the tattoos.

“Geez, I reckon I’ve spent almost $20,000 getting them removed,” Kirby said. ‘I had them everywhere, all over me. I had eight swastikas alone. I also had SS symbols, white power tattoos and Aryan Brotherhood tattoos. I was covered from head to toe in racist rubbish.”

And then there was jail.

“I did 27 years all up,” Kirby said. “And most of that was done in segregation.”

The Real Romper Stomper – Andrew Kirby – returns to Pentridge Prison for the first time since its closure in 1997. Picture: David Caird

Speaking for the first time about his role in the racist reign of terror that inspired the cult classic film Romper Stomper in James Phelps’s new book Australia’s Most Infamous Jail, Inside the Walls of Pentridge Prison, Kirby has given a complete and shocking account of the five-month rampage that turned Melbourne into a war zone, beginning December 1989.

In a series of revelations that make Romper Stomper look like Romper Room, Kirby has revealed never before details about the infamous axe murder that occurred at a celebration of Adolf Hitler’s Birthday and admitted that he was a paid-up member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Listen to a snippet of Andrew Kirby’s story on The Real Romper Stomper.

Kirby was 17 when the gang began the rampage that would gain international enormity after Russell Crowe starred in Geoffrey Wright’s hit film Romper Stomper.

“I can’t tell you how many people we bashed because there were just so many,” Kirby said. “I mean me alone. I was convicted of 18 offences relating to attacks in that period, and we’re not talking about a significant period. It was like a whirlwind. We’d cruise the streets, looking for people to bash. We’d all be armed. We’d have hunting knives, meat cleavers, machetes, bats, and whatever else could do significant damage.

“We would meet up there [in the city] and have a drink or whatever,” Kirby said. “We had skinheads coming from all over, so the city was a central place to meet. From there, we would go north. We would get on the train and go from station to station, looking for people to attack or places to destroy. We firebombed synagogues, destroyed political offices, and burned down Asian restaurants. We used to run through little Chinatown and go into restaurants while they were open. We terrorised the staff and the customers.”

Andrew Kirby revisits his old cell in the notorious H Division for the first time after leaving Pentridge Prison. Picture: David Caird

Kirby revealed that fellow gang members Dane Sweetman and Martin Bayston murdered and then dismembered a man over a can of baked beans.

Sweetman and Bayston were convicted of hitting Adelaide man David Noble with an axe and then stabbing him 18 times before cutting up his body and dumping the remains on the banks of the Yarra River.

“You wouldn’t want to eat baked beans,” Kirby said. “Because that’s how it started. He was making a mess, which triggered him (Sweetman) to hit him with the axe.”

Kirby’s racist war ended after he stabbed a man nine times in a fatal race-related attack.

“I was arrested on arson first, but I was charged with offences relating to other attacks while in custody.”

In a warts and all account, former Pentridge prisoner Andrew Kirby opens up about the racist rampage that turned the streets of Melbourne into a war-zone. Picture: David Caird

Romper Stomper was released while Kirby served part of his sentence at Pentridge prison.

“I walked out into the yard one day, and a bloke pointed at me and yelled ‘Romper!’,” Kirby said. “And then everyone else joined in. I had to go and ask someone what they were on about, and he told me a couple of fellas had just come in, and they’d seen the movie. Word got around fast because everyone called me Romper Stomper after that.

“I went from being a no-one to being a well-known prisoner overnight. Suddenly, all the inmates and screws knew who I was. They would look at me and say, ‘That’s one of the Romper Stompers’.”

The Romper Stomper gang collapsed in 1995 when Sweetman was put into protective custody.

“I started to distance myself from it a year or so after the movie,” Kirby said. “The old blokes at Pentridge started getting into me. They would pull me aside and tell me it wasn’t the right way to do things.

“I hadn’t been brought up that way, and the old fellas reminded me of it. They said there is good and bad in everyone, and you should treat everyone with respect and judge them by how they treat you. I renounced all that bullshit after a guy I respected told me I would be put off if I kept on with it.”

James Phelps' new audiobook, The Real Romper Stomper, which is out now. Picture: Supplied

Now 51, Kirby has been out of prison for almost five years.

“I’ve walked away from that life,’ Kirby said. “I am so ashamed of the things that I did. I was never brought up like that. I don’t want to make excuses, but I blindly accepted all that bullshit because I wanted to belong. I am so ashamed of myself now when I look back. My grandfather fought in World War Two. He lost mates against the Germans and there I was, running amok in Melbourne, calling myself a Nazi.

“I’m ashamed of myself, ashamed and disgusted, and I must live with the guilt and remorse about who I was.”

Kirby is more than words. He has helped several youths transition out of neo-Nazi gangs.

“I just tell them my story,” Kirby said. “How they got their hooks into me and ruined my life.”

GIVEAWAY: Listen to Andrew Kirby’s full and shocking story, The Real Romper Stomper, in a five-part “Bookcast” exclusively on Bookenstein. Go to Bookenstein.com.au to claim your free download.

Originally published as Australia’s real Romper Stomper unmasked