Outlaws: The truth about Australian bikers
Nov 2011 · Allen & Unwin
3.9star
74 reviewsreport
Ebook
264
Pages
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About this ebook
An investigation into Australia's bikie clubs. Are Australia's bikie clubs bastions of organised crime? Useful pawns in the political law and order game? Investigative journalist Adam Shand asks, just how bad are they?
What's it like to be an outlaw biker? 'We're dickhead magnets,' one of them tells Adam Shand. 'Drunks in bars like to test themselves against a so-called outlaw.'
Once seen as a free-wheeling, brawling, pleasure-seeking bunch of misfits rolling down the highways, bikers are now cast as social bogeymen. If you believe the dire warnings of the media and politicians, they are an organised crime threat on a global scale.
Adelaide has long been regarded as the biker capital of Australia. Ten years ago South Australian Premier Mike Rann declared himself the nemesis of the biker community and he was committed to putting the clubs out of business with draconian new laws.
Bikers have rarely explained themselves; they have worn their outcast status as a badge of honour. But in 2005, author Adam Shand went inside the world of the outlaws to understand whether such drastic measures were justified or whether this was a fear campaign designed simply to win elections.
For the next six years, Shand mixed with bikers, talking to them about their lives and listening to their stories. He travelled with them on the road, spent time in their clubhouses, attended funerals and other club functions. He wanted to understand why men joined these secretive, arcane organisations which seemed to be at odds with the rest of society. What he found were not crime gangs but brotherhoods battling for their survival against threats from within and without.
By 2011 the bikers had won historic victories in the High Court. As Mike Rann's premiership imploded, the bikers were still riding high and living free. The hysteria was beginning to ebb. Outlaws explains how all this came to pass.
What's it like to be an outlaw biker? 'We're dickhead magnets,' one of them tells Adam Shand. 'Drunks in bars like to test themselves against a so-called outlaw.'
Once seen as a free-wheeling, brawling, pleasure-seeking bunch of misfits rolling down the highways, bikers are now cast as social bogeymen. If you believe the dire warnings of the media and politicians, they are an organised crime threat on a global scale.
Adelaide has long been regarded as the biker capital of Australia. Ten years ago South Australian Premier Mike Rann declared himself the nemesis of the biker community and he was committed to putting the clubs out of business with draconian new laws.
Bikers have rarely explained themselves; they have worn their outcast status as a badge of honour. But in 2005, author Adam Shand went inside the world of the outlaws to understand whether such drastic measures were justified or whether this was a fear campaign designed simply to win elections.
For the next six years, Shand mixed with bikers, talking to them about their lives and listening to their stories. He travelled with them on the road, spent time in their clubhouses, attended funerals and other club functions. He wanted to understand why men joined these secretive, arcane organisations which seemed to be at odds with the rest of society. What he found were not crime gangs but brotherhoods battling for their survival against threats from within and without.
By 2011 the bikers had won historic victories in the High Court. As Mike Rann's premiership imploded, the bikers were still riding high and living free. The hysteria was beginning to ebb. Outlaws explains how all this came to pass.
Ratings and reviews
3.9
74 reviews
Missus Jas
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February 13, 2016
A good read that lets us know that our politicians still think that they can control the lives of the people in this country. It also lets us know that there are still people out there to fight for their rights and win.
5 people found this review helpful
shane whiting
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February 28, 2013
It's good to see all sides looked at properly in a book like this. Most stories are either pro bikie or anti bikie however reading this was simply a truthful description of what is going on in Australia. Well written very interesting and an eye opener for all Australians about our rights
3 people found this review helpful
A Google user
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August 10, 2012
I really loved the book... although it seems to really push an agenda that bikers are just normal blokes who are being unfairly punished by the evil and corrupted government and police... The media and police definitely have the opposite opinion... I believe the truth is likely somewhere in the middle... regardless he book was well written and compelling reading...
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
Adam Shand is the author of Big Shots and King of Thieves (A+U 2009). He has previously been a journalist on 'The Bulletin' and on the Nine Network's 'Sunday' program.
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