Watch: Bandidos Motorcycle Club ride from Bendigo to Melbourne

Members from Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia gathered at Harley Central before setting off down the Calder Highway for the meeting, believed to be held in southern Melbourne.

It was the club’s largest ride for the day – and “the biggest run for quite some time” according to police – with Bendigo’s central location used as a meeting point.

Watch the ride live (story continues below):

The gathering attracted a strong police presence, including the Air Wing, Public Order Response Unit and plain clothes officers.

Superintendent Darren Franks said the response served a number of purposes.

“Suffice to say it’s a good opportunity for us to reinforce our expectations around how to use the road properly when they’re riding their bikes, as well as an opportunity to gather intelligence,” he said.

Officers could be seen recording their own footage of the gathering.

Bandidos members appeared unconcerned by the attention and gathered on the side of High Street in Kangaroo Flat for 90 minutes before starting the run.

Superintendent Franks said the amount of police resources expended on the event was warranted.

“Victoria Police committed to maintaining safe roads in and around Bendigo not to support the Bandido run, but more to make sure that they got on the road safely and they didn’t impact at all on the citizens of Bendigo or the driving public,” he said.

“We committed a considerable amount of resources to this today to make sure that they got away safely without too much of an impact on the drivers on the main roads and highways around Bendigo.

“It’s important that the men and women driving around Bendigo on the highway, particularly down the Calder, know that they’ve got a safe passage with the police organising for the bikes to use the road appropriately.”

South-bound traffic on High Street in Kangaroo Flat was restricted for about two minutes as the Bandidos took off, without incident.

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