"The bitterness between the Bandidos and the Comancheros grew to such an extent that on 10 August 1984, a bikie war was declared. The presidents of both gangs spoke abrasively to each other over the telephone. The war declaration was officially ratified . . . If ever the two gangs met, a full-scale confrontation could be expected. The bikies armed themselves for the inevitable bloodshed that accompanies any war."
On 2nd September 1984, Father's Day, the Comancheros and the Bandidos motorcycle gangs waged war against each other at a bike swap meet in the Sydney suburb of Milperra. Seven people, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed in the car park of the Viking Tavern. The members of the rival gangs arrived a the swap meet prepared for the battle, with firearms and baseball bats strapped to their bikes. They lined up at opposite ends of the car park crowded with 500 people, and the bloodshed began when Comanchero president, Jock Ross, raised a machete and shouted "Kill 'em all!"
Police officers rushed to the scene to bring the war under control, seizing weapons before ambulances could move in to treat the injured where they lay. Preliminary investigations into the massacre revealed that the Comancheros were angered by the defection of their members to the Bandidos, with the hostility escalating to war.
Three weeks later, NSW Police mounted the highly organised but perilous Operation Hard Walk to simultaneously arrest 43 bikies at their homes and charge them with murder. The resulting trial at Penrith Courthouse was the largest joint trial in NSW judicial history.
