User:Imlay1992/Star hotel riots

The star Hotel Riots
A riot that occured on September 19th 1979, Newcastle Australia

To this day, it is remembered as Newcastle's "night of infamy"

The trouble started just after 10pm when, to scattered cries of "kill the pigs", an angry, alcohol-fuelled crowd started pouring out of the pub and on to the street to confront a painfully thin blue line of police officers.

Within minutes, missiles were - in the words of one witness - "raining down like rice at a wedding". Rocks, bottles and beer cans. Watched by several hundred spectators gathered in the middle of the road, the mob rushed police lines and overturned paddy wagons. It was only after two hours of violent mayhem that the crowd was dispersed by fire-brigade hoses. By then, the street had been transformed, says a witness, into a "a sea of rubbish".

Fourteen officers and eight civilians were on the way to hospital with injuries. Eventually, 46 people were charged with 79 offences, ranging from assault occasioning actual bodily harm to resisting arrest and riotous assembly.

Indeed, Cold Chisel frontman Jimmy Barnes recently said people still came up to him to say how f---ing great he was at that gig he played on the last night of the Star. The band never performed at the hotel. Doubts have even been raised about the authenticity of some of the pictures taken that night.

Mentions to the riots:
The band Cold Chisel recorded a famous song about it

References: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/16/1095320899843.html?from=moreStories