Firearm battle that broke out between rival motorcycle gangs in Australia.
A 1984 gang shootout in Sydney killed seven people and triggered significant reforms to gun laws in New South Wales.
Key Facts
- Date
- 2 September 1984 (Father's Day)
- Deaths
- 7 people
- Injured
- 28 people
- Gangs involved
- Comancheros and Bandidos
- Location
- Milperra, south-western Sydney, NSW
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Tensions escalated after a faction of the Comancheros motorcycle club broke away to establish the first Australian chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, creating a bitter rivalry between the two organisations that steadily intensified through the early 1980s.
On 2 September 1984, members of the Comancheros and Bandidos engaged in an armed gunfight in Milperra, a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. The confrontation, which coincided with Father's Day in Australia, left seven people dead and twenty-eight wounded.
The Milperra Massacre prompted public outrage and became a catalyst for significant legislative changes to gun laws in New South Wales, drawing heightened government and law enforcement attention to outlaw motorcycle gang activity across Australia.