It started like any other day, but Father’s Day 1984 would go on to change Sydney forever.
The local newspaper had advertised a motorcycle club swap meet, at the Viking Tavern in the south west Sydney suburb of Milperra.
But the event wrote itself into the history books when two rival bikie gangs opened fire on each other, sparking a deadly hours-long gunfight that is still dogging Sydney to this day.
The Daily Telegraph’s crime editor Mark Morri has detailed the incredible story in the return of hit podcast Crim City alongside chief reporter Josh Hanrahan, the first episode of which focuses on the infamous bikie shootout.
Morri was a young reporter sent to the scene when the shootout occurred at the Viking Tavern in Sydney’s west between the Comanchero and Bandidos, and recalled the gory scene that confronted him, as well as the secrets of the court case that followed.
The shootout between rival bikie gangs sowed the seeds of the conflict raging in Sydney’s streets today.
“I went to go out there and the taxi driver was too scared to take me right up to where we were going,” the award-winning journalist said.
“It (the gunbattle) started at like 11 o’clock in the morning, so this was 2pm or 3pm by the time I eventually got out there and it was amazing, no one had been arrested yet.
“There was bikies driving around, you know, in their colours – there was the Commos and the Bandidos.”
The Milperra Massacre, as it became known, not only saw seven people killed – including six bikies and an innocent young girl – in September 1984, but set in motion a series of events that culminated in Sydney’s current underworld war.
Six weeks later NSW Police would arrest dozens of bikies, including Comanchero leader and founder Jock Ross, who would serve the most time of any of the men – a little more than five years.
But Morri recalled how one of the bikies went into witness protection, after rolling on his fellow gangsters, and says he is still desperate to find out what happened to him.
“There’s one story I’m still chasing to this day,” he said.
“I know that one of the bikies went into witness protection, he rolled, and I don’t know, look I know that he was in there at least 20 years.
“I know his handler is dead now, but only recently, and I’m still wondering whether this guy, if he’s still in witness protection today?”
New episodes of CrimCity will be available weekly wherever you listen to your podcasts.