Victory for vice: Strippers back in pole position on King Street
Reports of the demise of King Street's X-rated precinct appear to have been exaggerated.
Showgirls Bar 20, one of Melbourne's most notorious gentlemen's clubs, will return to its "spiritual home", despite a decade long campaign by the city council, police and members of the Grollo property empire to clean up the strip.
The original Showgirls Bar 20 was the nation's only strip club to be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange but had an appalling history of drunken violence.
The former venue at 46 King Street was bought in 2016 by Rialto Tower co-owners Grollo Group and St Martins Properties, who promptly closed the club as part of their long-term plan to gentrify the area.
But like the parlour game Whack-a-Mole, Showgirls Bar 20 has popped up at new premises at 195 King Street, which was once occupied by Dallas Showgirls until police shut it down in 2013 because of the club operator's links to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang
Co-owner Michael Trimble confirmed the controversial club would reopen in October but insisted it would be different to the venue once owned by his father John Trimble.
"People like the Grollo's keep saying that strip clubs are outdated but we're going nowhere. Every big city has an adult entertainment precinct and Melbourne is no exception. We've seen what big development has done to entertainment in Sydney – it's become a joke.
"All the girls in the industry are happy to see us back, as are our customers," Mr Trimble said.
But it remains to be seen if Victoria Police is pleased with the venue's relaunch.
In 2011, the club was stripped of its liquor licence for 18 months by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, after police prepared a 160-page dossier of evidence against the venue and its management.
We're going nowhere.
Strip club owner Michael Trimble
The alleged violence included a female police officer having her teeth knocked out as she attempted to subdue a fight, security guards bashing a patron who had been dragged out of range of surveillance cameras and a drunk smashed with a beer glass after he urinated on another patron.
On another occasion more than 100 patrons engaged in a wild brawl, according to the police report.
At the time, VCAT member Robert Davis said the 18-month ban imposed on the club and its managers would "satisfy the collective conscience of the people of Victoria".
But chief executive John Trimble, nephew of Mafia figure Robert Trimbole, had the ban overturned after a successful appeal to the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Mr Trimble founded ASX-listed Planet Platinum, which also owned Elsternwick brothel Daily Planet, before it was placed into administration in 2015, when the Australian Securities and Investment Commission made allegations of serious corporate governance breaches.
In a 69-page affidavit presented to the Supreme Court, ASIC claimed that Planet Platinum and its board had "acted without regard to the rights, entitlements or interests of its shareholders".
The corporate regulator was also looking into a $2.7 million loan extended to Mr Trimble from his associated company Metropolis City Promotions.
The company was ultimately placed into external liquidation and no charges were ever laid against the company or its directors.
Mr Trimble, who lives in Surfers Paradise, claims to have been the victim of corruption.
He says he would have nothing to do with the strip club industry or any other business for that matter.
"I wouldn't open a corner shop selling apples. Australia has become so corrupt," he said.