13 March 2006

800 people in Mooseheads Brawl

| johnboy
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The ABC is reporting a huge brawl in Civic on Saturday night/Sunday Morning with 800 people blocking London Circuit and 14 arrested.

The clash began when bouncers were set upon by a group of about 20 revellers outside Mooseheads nightclub on London Circuit.

Any witnesses amongst the readership?

UPDATED: The Canberra Times has more comprehensive coverage which sadly diverges into a case history of every reported incident in Civic over a long period of time.

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Was just telling a much younger work colleague about this.

I was djing at Mooseheads that night, saw the beginning of it from 2 metres away and ended up unintentionally involved in it, when the owners locked the doors for patron and staff safety, in the process stranding me right in the centre of it.
It was started by a group of football supporters, whose tempers frayed after a combination of alcohol, extremely hot weather (it was pre or early season and from memory both the raiders and brumbies played in canberra that night) and standing in the queue for too long. The footy heads kicked off at security (when did we stop calling them bouncers) and it was on for young and old. It all happened on the footpath and in the four lanes on London circuit. The footpath was literally covered in bodies as people wrestled on the ground. Id estimate approximately 40-50 patrons and 30 odd mooseheads staff were involved, with a further 300-400 people watching. While this sounds full on, there were no significant injuries that I saw, no bloodied faces, the other bloodied nose and mouth, but no broken jaws, or other maxilofacial injuries, and im pretty sure no one was transported to emergency via ambulance. Violence was a nightly occurrence at the moose, in 5 years working there I easily saw over 1,000 fights. In terms of actually damage done, this was on the lighter end of the scale. As a point of comparison i saw a bloke get slashed wide open with a glass, then as he feel to the ground his arm got caught on a couch leaving it fully extended. The perpetrator then kicked the man on the floor in the arm, between the elbow and shoulder, snapping the arm completely.

dragcity_cowgirl2:54 pm 14 Mar 06

Nah…I vote to keep the shithole open [Mooseheads]…that way there’s a higher chance of you having a decent night out ….SOMEWHERE ELSE

DJ – bloodbath was tongue in cheek.

Again with the bloodbath! There was hardly any! It wasn’t a scene out of Gladiators!

An upturned collar is just a magnet for some knuckle dragging folk. I can feel my blood boiling at the thought of an upturned collar even as I try to control my shaking hands.

I’m still amazed that some punters who start a blue, cop a flogging (educational) and then go to the security or Police and complain expect to be taken seroiusly.

Slow news day. Slow newspaper sales. All of the sudden we have 800 people at a bloodbath.

Yeah, I think Mooseheads is a hole – having worked on the door there (for a short period) in a former life I would have to suggest that it is frequented by the same types as most other clubs in the City. Collars up maketh not the man – an alcohol fuelled idiot comes in many different costumes.

schmerica – the person who came up with the figure of 800 at the Moose was probably responsible for inventing the figure of 30,000 people at ‘Party in the Park’ on Sunday.

Numbers aside, the Moose is still a testosterone filled, alchohol fueled meat market, (like most nightclubs) and the blood and vomit stains on the kerb are constant reminders of the calibre of patrons you can expect on any given night. I recall some hazy Saturday nights in Civic where East Row could have easily been confused with Fight Club, only with less organisation and more screaming girlfriends.

I was out and there were a lot of pissed people coming in from the Brumbies game.

We started in All Bar Nun Oconnor and the people arrived shortly after the game finnished. Ive got mate who drives Taxis and he says he doesnt like driving on those nights because of the amount of pissed people after the games.

Having said that its all in good fun and wasnt a bad night out. lol

I’ll be honest, if I have ever seen a fight, it has been outside Mooseheads. Occasionally Shooters and I can tell you 95% of the time they were just drunk bastards who pick a fight with the bouncers. The other 5% of the time its a case of ‘What you lookin at bruddah?’ type shit that starts it.

800 people is ALOT of people… I wasnt out, but 800 is definately alot of people. Maybe the sexual frustration came to a head among the young men :p

VG has hit the nail on the head. In my recent experience the Phoenix bar is been one of the few places I would avoid drinking at – might be that I just prefer to drink surrounded by those who know how to use soap and aren’t scared of shampoo and a comb.

Mooseheads is no worse (or better) than anywhere else. If there is loud music and alcohol with patrons wearing collars up the obvious outcome is a blood bath.

Blood bath outside Mooseheads most Friday and Saturday nights my arse!! What a ridiculous statement

Absent Diane3:42 pm 13 Mar 06

I was definately calling le moose a shithole…. I have given it numerous chances and the clientele (with a few exceptions) everytime has made me feel anxiety over the future of the human race.. this is a perfect example of it…

Maybe I just don’t understand the collar up fashion thing when not playing cricket.. if i am missing something I apologise..

You know Caphs is a little noisy with all those extra tables – good call AD shut it down, the sooner the better. OR, were you calling Mooseheads a shithole because you don’t go there?

Just how much blood is required to call an event a bloodbath? CT really hit the nail on the head with it’s cutting edge style of reporting – having one drunk female really telling it how it was. I can almost hear the screams reading the article! Those Police can really be scary what with those sky blue shirts and dress pants! Better not give them cargo pants…

I was there and I reckon that 600 is a fair estimate at the time the fools took on the security – everybody wanted to see what was happening so they ran in to have look. They must have thought it was an opportunity to view fresh blood. I’m thinking next time I’ll try to save some and see if somebody wants to touch it.

Sorry to upset those followers of the college of knowledge or RMC but no cadets in sight for this bloodbath…..

Absent Diane1:49 pm 13 Mar 06

I would love for noise complaints to shut that shit hole down….

There’s a blood-bath outside Mooseheads most Friday and Saturday nights. ACT Government is more interested in table numbers at Caphs than the constant brawling in and around Civic.

I emailed the link of this to my friend and this is what he said, ” There were really 800 people?? I was there for part of that and while there were a fair few I’m highly doubtful there were anywhere near 800.. maybe before the cops arived (and myself shortly thereafter after being drawn to the pretty flashing lights like a moth to flame 😛 – and I just saw the bouncers and cops manhandling a guy into the back of a police car and his distraught (presumed) girlfriend arguing with the police.
It would have been one hell of a rush for the people to get there too and then disperse equally as quickly.. I drove past Mooseheads to find
myself a carpark just about 15 minutes before I then walked up to find the cops blockading the street.. there was a line-up outside of about 50
or so people and no more than 200 on the other side of the street (near the carpark) just watching the action. The only people blocking London Circuit were the police.”

If there was a biffo of this size outside mooseheads, and the cadets weren’t involved, that’d be the story Thumper.

Absent Diane11:13 am 13 Mar 06

No suprises here….

Sadly it shows exactly why these people are desperate and dateless!

maybe it was the desperate and dateless who still couldn’t pick up at the ball and were going to the moose to try their luck there

The only thing my clan saw in Civic on saturday night was a lot of people. We spent most of our night at the wig and pen though, with a few trips down to the bus interchange/garema place area. We didn’t venture around the corner to mooseheads though, and didn’t see any signs of a brawl or increased police presence.

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