Personalities > Michael Hurley
Michael Hurley
Michael Hurley’s career perfectly mirrors the gentrification of Pyrmont. He was born in 1945 in a one-bedroom Pyrmont terrace, one of eight children, and left school at 14. By his own account he was merely a wharfie who twice won lotto. Much more likely is a career beginning as a wharfie, moving on to SP bookmaking, waterside theft and the importation of drugs. He made useful friends and created valuable networks. A Crime Commission reported that his gang was involved in “a wide range of criminal activities including the importation of prohibited drugs, manufacture and distribution of prohibited drugs, armed robberies, large-scale thefts and money laundering. A number of gang members are seamen or ex-seamen and the gang has corrupt relations with police, waterfront workers and government employees.”
Hurley’s career also reflected the reform of sections of the NSW police from collaboration to prosecution of crime. Warnings from friendly police frequently helped Hurley and his colleagues to dodge arrest and avid conviction. He also learned about listening devices in his house and car. On one occasion he was acquitted of a bold diamond theft because witnesses could not distinguish between Michael and his “twin” brother who were both suspects. By the 1990s he was acknowledged as the Mr Big of Sydney crime. His Italianate palazzo in Glebe – eventually sold for over $4,000.000 – was seen as further evidence. When a fireplace was stolen during renovations, it became known that was Hurley’s home – and the fireplace was returned unharmed.
The onset of incurable cancer led to surgery and chemotherapy at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and limited his mobility. In his 60s he sold his Glebe house and moved back to Pyrmont, in a waterside apartment on Refinery Drive. By now his luck was running out. The NSW Police force had been purged of many unreliable officers. He escaped arrest one more time when twelve of his colleagues were arrested in 2005, but after several months on the run, he was captured, tried, and sent to Long Bay Gaol. Transferred to RPA, he died there in 2007, having fought his way from rags to riches.
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Michael Hurley
