Ammunition, pills seized as Veterans Motorcycle Club evicted from Nollamara RSL: court

An RSL WA board member has laid bare what unfolded during a police-backed search of the Nollamara premises it seized from the Veterans Motorcycle Club, including the discovery of ammunition, magazine clips and pharmaceuticals.

Taking the witness stand in the WA Supreme Court on Monday, RSL board member Trent Mongan told the court Police Minister Paul Papalia and federal Defence Minister Matt Keogh were among those called before the club was evicted from the Sylvia Street property on February 6, 2024.

The Nollamara RSL.Credit: Google

Mongan told the court he arrived flanked by locksmiths and police, a move he said was aimed at distancing the league from anything “unfavourable” it feared may be found after tasking officers with conducting an occupier’s search. The police attendance was not part of any criminal investigation into the club.

The court heard the search recovered 35 rounds of live and dummy ammunition, magazine clips and boxes of pharmaceuticals, some of which had been imported from overseas.

But RSL WA’s lawyer Tom Porter claimed that within five weeks the VMC had removed the locks and refused to vacate the premises, prompting the league to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

The eviction came after the RSL board resolved to sever ties with club, repossess the premises and disband the Nollamara sub-branch over allegations it was being run like a bikie clubhouse with skimpy barmaids.

The VMC — which shared members with the sub-branch and had been occupying a building on the site for almost three decades — denied the allegations, firing back with a counterclaim against the league.

The Sylvia Street premises is situated on Crown land granted to the RSL on the condition it is used as a meeting place for the organisation’s members.

At the centre of the case is whether the agreement reached between the Nollamara sub-branch and the VMC in 1996 for the construction of a clubhouse constituted a formal lease.

Porter told the court there was no evidence of a formal lease and, with no RSL operating on the property, the VMC’s occupation now constituted trespass.

The RSL has sought an urgent injunction requiring the motorcycle club and its members to vacate the premises.

The VMC’s lawyer Stephen Hicks argued the parties inked a periodic lease in 1996 it was adamant remained in force, telling the court the club had paid $300 quarterly in peppercorn rent.

Hicks stated the documents indicated the agreement could only be terminated at the election of his client, and the RSL’s changing of the locks breached that deal, spearheading a counterclaim seeking a declaration that VMC could remain in the property until 2046.

“The VMC spent money making a home at the clubhouse, installing memorabilia and trophies and building relationships in the community that cannot be replicated elsewhere,” Hicks said.

“The club stands to lose the benefit of funds it raised, performed labour … and gave up the opportunity to invest in a clubhouse elsewhere.

“The plaintiff does not come to this court with clean hands. There is no law that permits the owner of land to take the personal property of a tenant.”

RSL WA president Duncan Anderson is expected to take the witness stand on Tuesday.

The trial continues.

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