Here are some articles I found on the Bathurst Riots. I have yet to set my opinions of them, but are some of the best sources I can find. Soon to come will be a article on how it came to be what it was in 1999.

CONTENTS

How it all began
A model for crowd control
Riots at the Bathurst Motorcycle Races
Some Email Correspondance
Media Construction of the 1985 Bathurst Riot
References

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

We Freedom Riders have a penchant for mountain tops. Like beacons we set up camp and lit our fire on Mount Panorama, the mountain that overlooks Bathurst from the west and is the site of the NSW's premier motor bike and car race tracks.

This mountain was also the site of another set of riots that gave Bathurst national notoriety? the Easter Bike Race riots of 1981-5.

The Easter bike races on Mt Panorama began in the 1930s as biker camp out, "clubman" affairs. From the early1960s motor bike enthusiasts became identified and amplified in the media as a deviant culture (the Hells Angels image) and conflict between police and bikies ("police baiting") became institutionalised ? ritualised even. Each Easter young men of mostly working class origins headed for Bathurst expecting to contest with police what was acceptable behaviour in public space. Each Easter 300 or so police (also young men of mostly working class origin) rostered on for overtime at Bathurst knowing they would be contesting space with bikers who had no respect for them.

The Police used the "fact" of the annual riots to create and train the Tactical Response Group and arm it with the latest in US crowd suppression technology. In Easter 1985 the TRG had set themselves up in a wire enclosure in the middle of the McPhilamy camping area, where we had set up our beacon. On Easter Saturday night 1985 they sallied forth in formation into the beer soaked crowd of young males with shields and batons, bashing and arresting the tardy, and retreating again on whistle call. It was textbook crowd suppression, totally crazy and counter productive.

The more the TRG harassed the crowd the more violence came back to them from the crowd. The police compound became besieged and the police inside were in great danger from flying bricks and petrol bombs. The media, of course, reported the events from the police side of the wire and made a big to-do about the burning of one of the Channel Seven news car, which had been left parked outside the enclosure.

The story would have remained another shock-horror tale of moral degeneration except that the predicability of the riots allowed academics from the then Mitchell College of Advanced Education (Chris Culleen, Mark Findlay, Rob Lynch and Vernon Tupper) to set up a social research project and for the first time ever, document a riot from the inside of a crowd.

Although the action of the police and negative publicity eventually succeeded in closing down the Easter bike races in Bathurst, the book of Culleen et al - Dynamics of Collective Conflict: Riots at the Bathurst Bike Races (The Law Book Company 1989) - became a police training manual on how NOT to manage crowds and has been a great background influence on event management planning ever since - the Sydney Olympic Games included.

For example when the Victorian Tourism Commission decided to fill the vacuum left by the death of the Bathurst Bike races - an event which had never gathered a crowd greater than 60,000 - and make Easter the occasion of a Motor Cycle Grand Prix at Philip Island, the Victorian police read the book and worked in close collaboration with the motor cycle clubs to plan and prepare for the event. The first Motorcycle Grand Prix of 1988 attracted 400,000 punters and bikers were given a police escort to travel en masse from Melbourne ? a win-win for all concerned.

Now negotiation and peace making are the rule when it comes to events and police.

A MODEL FOR CROWD CONTROL

Arthur and Liz Veno's first impression of Bathurst, New South Wales, was one of chaos.
As newcomers to the area, they set out to explore the city's nightlife but found themselves caught in the middle of violent clashes between police and revellers at the 1983 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
The riots, which erupted again at the same site in 1985, left dozens of police and revellers injured and resulted in hundreds of arrests, permanently damaging the event's reputation. Even years after its relocation to Victoria, its notoriety continued in the NSW courts, where many of those arrested disputed charges laid by police.

But the Venos - who have spent more than 12 years studying the causes of the riots - believe police are still learning the lessons of Bathurst: that the use of force is an ineffective means of crowd control.

According to Dr Arthur Veno, a criminologist and senior lecturer at Monash University, the heavy-handed crowd control tactics used by police at Bathurst contributed to the tension which sparked the rioting and aggravated further violent outbreaks.

"Bathurst represents the very worst of what can happen when police match excessive force with force. In terms of a breakdown in public order, there has been nothing like it in Australia before or since," he said.

Based on data from Bathurst, the Venos' subsequent research at Monash's Centre for Police and Justice Studies has resulted in an innovative crime prevention model for policing large-scale public events.

The model, which last month earned the pair a Victorian Government Crime Prevention and Community Safety Award, turns the traditional style of law enforcement on its head.

"It is based on back-to-basics policing, which involves collaboration and cooperation between police and the public," Dr Veno said.

"From our research at Bathurst, we know that the paramilitary style of crowd control simply serves to increase public hostility and escalate violence."

The model has since proved successful in reducing violence at other motorcycle races in NSW, and at Phillip Island, where the Australian Motor Cycle Grand Prix was held in 1989 and 1990.

Aspects of the model were also applied at the 1996 Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, and the strategy will be used again at Phillip Island when the Australian Motor Cycle Grand Prix returns there next year.

In developing their crowd control strategy for the motorcycling events, the researchers coordinated working groups - which included police and `bikers' - to identify conditions which could trigger violence and develop practical solutions to potential problems.

Dr Veno said the model helped reduce frustration between police and spectators with a number of simple but effective strategies. These included ensuring that spectator facilities and services at the race were adequate, implementing an effective traffic plan using a community-run marshalling system, and reducing police involvement away from the traditional `garrison' patrol to a community support role.

 "At Bathurst, we found that confrontational policing, including searching spectators en route to the race and during the event, provoked the crowds," Dr Veno said.

"Aggravated by a range of other factors - such as excessive alcohol consumption, a strong media presence and inadequate facilities at after-race entertainment sites and camping grounds - the situation got out of control," he said.

"At the 1985 event, it was chaotic. The police commander read the riot act three times before being forced to run for cover under a hail of missiles that soon became a torrent of rocks, broken bottles and Molotov cocktails. Clearly the aggression was aimed at police."

Dr Veno said that in Victoria, principles from the model were being applied in a number of community-based initiatives including domestic disputes and alcohol-related crime reduction campaigns.

And he believed there was potential to apply the community-based policing principles across all police activities. He said this was particularly important in Victoria, where police needed to regain public confidence in the wake of severe criticism of their heavy-handed tactics.

But according to Dr Veno, one of the biggest barriers to applying these principles was that current police culture did not consider community policing as `real' law enforcement policing.

"While there is a commitment to community policing in Victoria, it is still the weak link in the policing chain, and it continues to struggle for the ear of command and for resources," Dr Veno said.

"It isn't about catching the bad guys and high-speed chases. It's more about solving problems and preventing crime with simple solutions such as ensuring the street lamp on the corner is fixed to stop muggings".

BY BRENDA HARKNESS

RIOTS AT THE BATHURST MOTORCYCLE RACES

"At 8.20 pm, some ten minutes after their arrival on the Mountain the TRG (the NSW Police Tactical Response Group) had established five separate formations, three facing the crowd to the north and the west and two facing the crowd to the south-west...Crowd members, standing some 30 metres back from the TRG officers threw rocks, bottles and other missiles at them...Every few minutes (2 to 10 minutes) the TRG members sprinted some 30 to 50 metres in their attempts to apprehend and disperse crowd members. .. At the site of the conflict the chants from the crowd continued. . . 'Pigs suck! Pigs suck!'. .. At 9.33 a fire on the race track evoked a call of 'Burn it! Burn it!' A police van came onto the race track, but was hit with a barrage of bottles and rocks. The driver spun the van around and drove away at speed..."

Cuneen, C. et al., 1989, Dynamics of Collective Conflict Riots at the Bathurst Bike Races, Law Book Company, North Ryde, p. 96.

SOME EMAIL CORRESPONDANCE

Dear Theo,
                   Greetings, Thanks for supporting the fact that Bathurst Bike Races in the early eighties were like a war zone. I was not there in 85, but 82/83. When I was there the guns were heard during the day from down in the valley behind the camping area, so we knew the guns were in the crowd. Now as to the Police starting  the riot(s) I can understand from your perspective that charging  Police in Battle array looks like starting the blue. But remember that we were there to 'protect' people and whenever the crowd turned on anyone or the media we had to charge in and free the person. This was our job you know.  We had plainclothes Detectives in the crowd dressed as Bikers with a distinctive piece of clothing on so we knew that they were ours. They would radio to us that someone in the crowd was in trouble and in we would charge. From your view it would have looked like the Police being agressive-it wasn't. Even lighted sticks of gelignite were thrown during those riots. You  jest about the petrol but have you ever been on the receiving end of a molotov cocktail or had to extinguish a mate who had  been set alight for no other reason than he was  trying to save some silly person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In any case glad to cross swords with you again in this much more peaceful environment. Sad we are still on opposing sides though. I will let you answer but I will not respond
as this really is off topic for this NG.

The riot was caused by drunks who had lost control.

In Him,
Greg  Scully.

On Fri, 4 Dec 1998 14:56:19 +0800, "Theo Bekkers" <tb@bekkers.com.au>
wrote:

>>Whilst a TRG Officer I attended the Bathurst Motor Cycle (riots) races two times where at night fellow officers were set on fire by Bikers,  my job was  to put them out with a fire extinguisher. At that time petrol bombs and gunshots were common  in the crowd.

>Hey, I was there in '85, on my bike, I was a spectator. Wasn't it fun to see all the police in their fortress scurrying about in their combat gear. A bit silly to charge a crowd of people with batons when they have bottles of petrol, isn't it? I didn't hear any guns though.
>None of the police looked like saints to me.
>Cheers
>Theo
>There are two sides to every story. The "riot" was caused by the police.

MEDIA CONSTRUCTION OF THE 1985 BATHURST RIOT

(Information in the following section taken from Cunneen, Findlay, Lynch and Tupper (1989). Media Construction of the 1985 Riot. In: Dynamics of Collective Conflict, Chapter 6. Law Book Company, Sydney. except where otherwise specified.)

The media representation of Bathurst is a good example of media coverage of crime as many of the problems expressed about the media are displayed in this coverage. The study was conducted by Cunneen et al and its major findings were that --

• the press concentrated on authority opinion,
• material was sensationalised,
• the idea that police action or spectator/police relationships may have added to the violence was not discussed, and
• site management as a moderating influence was not considered.

The unbalanced coverage in many ways propagates the stereotypic image of the violent troublemaking bikie, which enhances conflict between the bikies, police and reporters.
To conduct the study television and newsprint media were concentrated on to study the reporting. For television dominant images were isolated and recorded noting frequency and content. The script accompanying images was also copied. For newsprint, newspaper clippings were collected for the month of April from all of Australia except the Northern Territory: 202 clips from 53 newspapers were collected, this did not include race-related reporting. New South Wales newspapers accounted for more than half of these articles, and most were published over three consecutive days of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday following the riot.

Line counts were used to study the extent of coverage in any particular newspaper. Particular details of the riot and the extent of coverage were noted and identified spokespersons were noted.

Reporting the Riot
There were a great deal of 'credible' people, or 'authorised knowers', used in reporting with police, State Government and the local politicians being approached for their comments. The Mayor of Bathurst, Minister for Police and the police officer in charge were the most popular. Comments by the State Opposition were more frequently reported than the NSW Premier at the time, Neville Wran. This indicates manipulation of the media by the opposition using the situation to make the current party in power look bad.

Arrest and injury details were given wide publication and the image of a Channel 7 hired car was very dominant. Actual figures of the data fluctuated from paper to paper with the estimated number of rioters varying from 200-500.

In most cases the newspaper articles did not give extensive descriptions of the riots, nor did the content vary much. Possible reasons for this were thought to be that the print media perhaps allowed for images to be created by TV coverage and also that the newspapers relied on the Australian Associated Press (AAP) wire service for visual and textual information, which would account for lack of variation. It has been noted that a single AAP journalist may construct their own version of events from a computer terminal in Sydney through contacts, that is then widely used by the papers.

Discussion of Findings
Media interest in Bathurst was short-lived and follows a three-phase pattern noted by Wren-Lewis --

1. lead in revelationary stage where violent public disorder is presented in a law and order framework,
2. the interpretive stage where views of a privileged selection of speakers is given, and
3. closure, where the coverage moves to preventative measures.

In the television coverage, 16 recurring images were used, with fire and flames being the most dominant followed by the apprehension of people, the police TRG in action, official faces and finally injured people. These made up 60% of the images presented and tell a story of destruction, official response, its cost and official interpretation of the events. Dramatic fire and arrest images were pieced together in rapid succession giving a sensationalise view of police against the angry mob.
Newspaper headlines were devised to attract attention and cause sensationalism. Often the information in an article did not vary from one paper to the next and was gathered from the AAP so that the newspaper headlines were the only thing that differed.

The dominant pictorial image in newspapers was Channel 7's burning news car that had been looted and firebombed after 9pm. The emphasis was on anarchy and chaos. This gives a distorted view and presents the world as a dangerous place. The riot was portrayed to have sprung out of nowhere and to be completely unexpected once it had started. This is despite the fact that there was expectation of a riot expressed by the media leading up to the riots.

This limited picture that the media presented is in direct contravention to the idea of the media presenting the realities of the world from an apolitical perspective. Complex issues underlying the conflict are not dealt with avoiding the real issues as to why the conflict occurs at all.

Time or space limitations and deadline pressures place extra burdens on the reporter and mean selection of what to report is based on this. Issues that are easy to research and report will get first preference.

There was a great deal of inaccuracy in the reporting, including omission of detail, focussing on certain detail and major transformation of original material. The information is presented in mythic forms maintaining well-established beliefs and prejudices. The news by nature appears to be objective because it is based on presentation of what the camera sees, microphone records and reporters observe. The riot was however depicted from an official viewpoint. Bathurst was televised by film crews standing behind police lines, giving a police perspective. They also became targets with the burning of the Channel 7 car adding to a loss of objectivity.

To assist in gathering news of 'unexpected' events reporters develop a 'rounds structure' in which a network of contacts such as courts, police, trade unions and Parliament are institutionalised. This helps them gain rapid access to unfolding events and authoritative comment giving increased reliance on what authority figures have to say. In coverage of Bathurst official comment was given 466 seconds of TV air time and unofficial comment 69 seconds. Newspaper interview and photopics in the press give officials a similar weighting.

Relative time allocation for injury was similar with 94 seconds to police injury and 32 to other persons with a similar pattern for newspaper coverage. This gives the effect of making it appear either that more police were injured, or crowd members injuries were not important. More pictures were shown of injured crowd members than police however.

The media directly shaped some of the images shown with an example being of a TRG officer posing 30m from the riots for a photo with a fire extinguisher in one hand and a shield in the other and the camera man requested that he put the extinguisher on the other side. Bikies counting out bail money was another fabricated image. The image of a large toilet block was used to represent the demolished kiosk.

Requirements of structure in reporting overrode considerations of factuality and objectivity. A restricted verbal presentation along with the restricted visual imagery constructed a vision of violent drunken bikies often referred to as animals or hooligans.

By dealing in stereotypes the press labels and stigmatises behaviours seen as deviant and this labelling causes a concentration of one aspect of a person who is labelled's identity. This reduces complex social relationships to a simple formulae.

The main explanation given of the riots by those involved was police harassment, yet this explanation was given little weight with the perspective's of authority figures given more credence. In Bathurst law and order was seen to be restored by political reassurances of more vigorous policing.

The media has become an integral part of the civil disorder process. The story format is centred around ideas and beliefs held which leads to a propagation of stereotypic images, that reflect the views often of authoritarian positions. The media by sensationalising the conflict assists in deepening the divisions causing the conflict and can shift some of the hostility towards the media also.

So it can be seen that the findings of this study found many of the factors that affect the way a news story is written, to be in direct conflict with the idea of the news presenting an event as it really was. These problems need to be addressed, and ideas as to how to improve the media representation are discussed later.

REFERENCES

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~dtebbutt/oj/ojmediacrime3.html
Cunneen, C., Findlay, M., Lynch, R. and Tupper, V., 1989, Dynamics of Collective Conflict: Riots at the Bathurst 'Bike Races, North Ryde: The Law Book Company.