Kalgoorlie is notorious for being a wild west town, but police hope it doesn’t get any wilder with the arrival of the Rebels bikie gang on their national run.
Some 1000 Rebels members crossed the West Australian border on Tuesday after crossing the Nullarbor, spending time in Norseman before travelling in a massive convoy – shadowed all the way by police – to the historic gold mining town of Kalgoorlie on Wednesday.
They’ll stay there overnight then make their way to Perth, bound for the gang’s Osborne Park clubhouse.
The run brings together chapters from across the country, led by national president Alex “The Maltese Falcon” Vella.
They’ve brought a torrent of business to roadhouses and been met with the state’s biggest police presence since the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2011.
Acting Detective Inspector Jeff Christmass denied police were escorting the bikies around the state, saying the operation was about community safety.
“They are a criminal network,” Det Christmass told ABC radio.
“Our role is to monitor, contain and disrupt all their activities to make sure the community is safe.”
Both the Caltex and BP service stations at Norseman were run off their feet.
“It’s been busy,” a spokesman for the Norseman Caltex told AAP.
“They all behaved themselves. Even the police said so.”
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