AUSTRALIA - Inside the Finks bikie clubhouse

OFF THE WIRE
THE BBC documentary starring the Gold Coast chapter of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang airs tonight on SBS.

`Australia with Simon Reeve' will be shown tonight at 8.30pm on SBS One as the Finks open their Molendinar clubhouse for the BBC's cameras.

The award-winning journalist and television presenter said the gang was ``very welcoming''.

``The police in Australia say they're involved in drug production, drug smuggling, murder, arson and anarchy in most forms,'' Mr Reeve said.

``They were willing to meet us, partly because they like BBC documentaries, I kid you not, and partly because they want to put over their side of the story, and explain that it's their members not them as a gang."

He described the Finks as ``hulky, tattooed blokes with biceps the size of my waist''.

``They were very welcoming, but very intimidating and quite exotically alien in a way that I have rarely experienced on my travels.

``It was right up there with meeting Mr Big Beard in a market in Mogadishu, and it was happening in an industrial estate outside Brisbane - just completely surreal.''

Local tourism and business leaders have criticised the production which depicted the Gold Coast as a 'gangster's paradise'.

Gold Coast Tourism chairman Paul Donovan described the BBC documentary as 'a beat-up'.

``Everyone wants to bash the Gold Coast because they're jealous of the great lifestyle we've got here. Every place in the world has (crime) issues, we can't deny that. But the Gold Coast is the most fantastic place to live and holiday,'' Mr Donovan said.

The UK tourism market is worth $2.5 billion nationally and each year about 55,000 visitors from the country visit the Gold Coast.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2013/08/07/456004_gold-coast-news.html