A disturbing photo of a homemade weapon has emerged from an Outback town that is being torn apart by child gang warfare.
A picture released by Northern Territory Police patrolling Wadeye – one of Australia’s most dangerous towns about 420km south-west of Darwin – shows a weapon consisting of a circular saw attached to a steel bar.
The weapon was seized by NT Police late last year – and was followed up by a more recent operation where cops searched 65 houses, arrested 58 people and also collected four crossbows, arrows, a baseball bat, metal rods and 20 tomahawks.
The neighbouring communities of Wadeye and Peppimenarti have been plagued for decades with clan warfare between groups called the Madonna Mob, the Judas Priest Boys, the Metallica Mob and the Kylie Girls and the Slayer Mob.
But a recent outbreak of particularly intense clashes involving children as young as eight have rendered the towns virtually lawless, with police officers admitting their attempts to quell the brawls have been ‘ineffective’.
Wadeye has seen pitched battles after dark between rival gang members wheeling around the streets and setting houses and vehicles alight.
Video obtained by the Daily Mail shows children and teenagers wielding axes and crossbows, and throwing rocks.
In one clip of an apparent riot, motorbikes revved as people ran around whooping, smashing buildings and vehicles, swearing and hollering.
Northern Territory police patrolling the township of Wadeye found this horrifying home-made weapon which is styled on a medieval mace and made from a circular saw attached to a piece of concrete rebar
A man armed with a crossbow aims at residents of Peppimenarti during a riot in the violent township which has been boiling over since the beginning of 2026
Armed with axes, arrows and a cross-bow, young men are seen posing in the streets of Wadeye
Adults walked resignedly through the mob, avoiding a screaming rioter wielding an adjustable spanner.
Police only seized the cache of weapons in an operation conducted when it was safe enough for them to even enter the towns – which in the current wet season are isolated by road.
The Mail has learned that gangs have invented another new weapon they’re tearing from the very fabric of the communities’ housing – glass window louvres which they are ‘using as machetes’.
The most recent outbreak was led by the most menacing and dominant of the gangs, the Bon Jovi Boys, who sparked an all-out street brawl in ‘Peppi’ in early February when it raided the local store.
Peppimenarti and Wadeye are cut off from ground transport between November and April when the only way in, the unsealed Daly River Road, becomes flooded and impassable.
Supplies had to be dropped in by air and the Peppimenarti community’s store had only been restocked with food, drinks and supplies a few weeks before.
The Jovi Boys allegedly ramraided the store, forcing themselves through the security doors and pillaging the region’s alcohol supply.
The gang, renowned for car thefts, looting, and breaking into homes, also allegedly stole precious food and water supplies.
Video of this young male holding a tomahawk and crouching ready to defend himself was seen during a riot in the remote Northern Territory township
A resident wields a common shifting spanner as a weapon during the uproar in Peppimenarti, one of a continuing series of outbreaks of violence in the Outback communities southwest of Darwin
Police searched 65 houses, arrested 58 people and seized this cache of weapons which includes four crossbows, arrows, a baseball bat, metal rods and 20 tomahawks
Hundreds of irate locals – including children as young as eight – pursued them to Wadeye and openly fought with blunt, edged and other improvised weapons well into the early hours.
The mob then turned on the NT Police who arrived at the scene, and officers claimed brawling locals fired a crossbow bolt and hurled other improvised weapons towards them and pelted the Wadeye police station.
Police had previously responded to multiple reports of large disturbances erupting on the streets of Wadeye and Peppimenarti since early January.
Some violent gatherings involving children have drawn crowds of up to 100 people and law-abiding locals are said to be fearful of leaving their homes.
Alarming footage of a white ute driving into crowds in late January proved the final straw for police.
The video showed the ute driver accelerating rapidly up the road before suddenly veering off course and towards dozens of people.
The driver then appeared to lose control of the ute while driving over a small bump in the grass before colliding with a street pole.
Police deployed reinforcements to Wadeye to ‘support local members and manage the immediate risk to community safety’, but later confirmed two police cars were damaged by projectiles chucked by the crowd.
Armed men in Wadeye pose for pictures in front of the burning properties which were torched by roaming gangs of youths
Hurling rocks, teens take part in the rioting which has blighted Wadeye and Peppimenarti over weeks of unrest since the start of the year
Wadeye and its neighbouring community of Peppimenarti, further inland, are often lawless townships but police are now cracking down after rioting gangs trashed houses and vehicles
‘Attempts by police to disperse the offenders [overnight] have been ineffective, as large groups continue to reform and engage in further acts of violence and property damage,’ an NT Police spokesperson said.
NT Police acting-Commander Terry Zhang said public resources could not be ‘sustainably managed’ with this ‘type of behaviour occurring’.
In 2022, around 500 people fled Wadeye – population 4,000 – to hide out in surrounding bush after a particularly savage round of violence left them homeless.
Gangs armed with axes, hammers, iron bars and machetes roamed the streets searching for victims, with authorities apparently powerless to stop them.
Being out on the street risked an encounter with a ‘Troopy’ (a Landcruiser which seats eight) full of armed boys and men.
Formerly called Port Keats, Wadeye began as a Catholic mission in 1935 created to centralise local clans and bring Aboriginal people together so they could get access to modern facilities.
Twenty clans from seven different language groups lived across the region known as Thamarrurr.
From the late 1980s, Wadeye’s young population – half were aged under 20 – split up into 14 music-themed gangs inspired by watching the night time ABC music program, Rage.
A man in Wadeye is seen suffering from an arrow being shot through his arm
The numbers dwindled to eight groups, but on certain nights they would team up into two rival supergangs and engage in fierce battles.
Wadeye and Peppi are the Northern Territory’s biggest Aboriginal communities, but politicians are at a loss of what to do, especially when a spate of violence continues as it has in the current moment.
in early January, a man was shot with a crossbow bolt and police pepper-sprayed multiple people and seized weapons.
The cache included four crossbows, arrows, a baseball bat, metal rods, and 20 tomahawks.
