OFF THE WIRE
ZARA DAWTREY
themercury.com.au
SUBURBAN REBEL: A.J. Graham with his wife Kylie and stepdaughter Anesha in the Rebels' new clubhouse in Kingston. Pictures: KIM EISZELE
THE new Rebels biker club is in Kingston to stay.
While many residents may not like it, Kingborough Council says the clubrooms tick all the boxes.
"Respect few, fear none" is the club's motto and Rebels leader A.J. Graham has plenty of respect for the extreme brand of brotherhood offered by biker clubs in Australia.
The 45-year-old president of the Kingston chapter is something of a celebrity in the state's south, hitting the headlines in recent years for the wrong reasons: jailed for bashing a private investigator, acquitted over an incident involving a shovel and an achilles tendon but also for the positive his romantic wedding to Kylie 10 months ago and his ongoing charitable pursuits.
Two bandaged RSPCA plastic wombat money boxes sit atop the new bar installed in the uber man shed Mr Graham has set up on a little-used site down an industrial track at Kingston.
It's this contrast leather-clad bikies collecting spare change for orphaned animals that touches on the intrigue surrounding the club.
Kingborough Council last week approved a change in usage application allowing the shed to be used as a private clubhouse for the Kingston chapter of the Australian bikers club.
Some residents are unhappy.
A leaflet circulated in the area in the leadup to last week's council decision warned residents to lodge an objection to the clubrooms, referring to methamphetamine busts that saw a number of Northern club members charged with drug trafficking last year.
But while he freely admits to brushes with the law in years gone by Mr Graham says there are two sides to every story and his intentions for the clubrooms are "all good".
The Kingston Rebels, he says, have nothing to do with the kind of dramas surrounding other biker clubs interstate which saw the groups outlawed after violent wars leading to the bashing death of a bikie at Sydney Airport in 2009.
"But we don't associate with other clubs, no way," Mr Graham said.
"We've got six people in this chapter and these clubrooms are for us and our guests. We are not open to the public."
During the Mercury's exclusive tour of the venue, the heavily tattooed biker boss gave an unprecedented insight into the club around which he has based his life.
"I have my family, my friends and my hobby riding," he said.
"We don't associate with anyone else. It's not about what the public thinks of us, but those who know us, they know what we are, they know what we stand for."
While he describes the property as "really a men's shed" where the motorcycle addicts get together and talk about their next ride and whatever else is on their mind, at the same time no one should be left in any doubt as to the "exclusivity" of membership.
To say it's hard to get in is an understatement ... not that there's a line of people begging for membership.
"Nah, not many are interested these days, there's too much stigma," Mr Graham said.
The club conducts rigorous background checks into those who do want in but the police checks are more skewed towards ensuring you're "not an undercover cop" versus safeguarding against criminality.
Now the application process is complete he is focusing on offering his current members a good time but, he says, not at the expense of Kingston residents.
"We've got no interest in causing any trouble so people should just relax and mind their own business," he said.
