The Honoured Society () is a Calabrian 'ndrangheta criminal confederation, started in Melbourne and currently active in all of Australia. In 1963, it was reportedly involved in the Victoria Market Murders. Frank Benvenuto was a leading figure in the Melbourne groups until his slaying in 2000. Tony Romeo, another high-ranking member, was shot in 2002.
History
Known by the names "The Honoured Society", L'Onorata Societa or La Famiglia to Italians but more simply as the Mafia to most Australians, the 'ndrangheta has controlled Italian-Australian organised crime all along the East Coast of Australia since the early 20th century. The 'ndrangheta began in Queensland, where they continued their rural form of organised crime, especially in the fruit and vegetable industry. From 1928 to 1940, some 10 homicides and 30 bombings were attributed to the Society. 'Ndrangheta operating in Australia include the Sergi, Barbaro and Papalia clans. Similarly in Victoria the major families are named as Italiano, Arena, Muratore, Benvenuto, and Condello.
Melbourne godfather Domenico "The Pope" Italiano died in 1962 followed several weeks later by the death of the cells enforcer Antonio "The Toad" Barbara, both of natural causes, leaving a power vacuum that sparked a struggle to take over the cell. That in turn resulted in the deaths of Calabrian-born mobsters Vincenzo Angilletta and Vincenzo Muratore, sparking the "Market Wars" over control of the Victoria Market. At the time it was unclear that most involved in the Market Wars were affiliated with the 'ndrangheta. A Victoria Market stallholder named Liborio Benvenuto was eventually to take over as godfather, a position he held until his death of natural causes in 1988.
In 1964, investigations by Victoria Police into the Victoria Market murders prompted the Victorian Government to invite two overseas experts on Italian organised crime to assist, John T. Cusack, a district supervisor of the United States' Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and Dr Ugo Macera, an assistant commissioner of police in Calabria. The Cusack and Macera reports revealed the existence of the Society in Melbourne, warning that without action being taken, within 25 years they would have diversified from their stand-over tactics in the fruit and vegetable industries and have monopolies in such fields as "labour racketeering, wholesale distribution of alcoholic and soft drinks, the importation of olive oil, tomato paste and cheese, the baking and distribution of Italian baked goods, the vending machine business, the monopolistic ownership of night clubs and taverns, musical recording and record distributing companies, model and theatrical booking agencies and building and road construction companies." Neither report was made public.
In November 1964, ASIO was tasked with conducting a nationwide intelligence survey of the 'ndrangheta. In their 1965 report they found that the Society began with the arrival of the ship Re D'Italia in Adelaide in 1922. The vessel carried three 'ndrangheta members who set up cells in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Domenico Strano established the Sydney cell, Antonio Barbaro established another in Melbourne while the member who established the cell in Perth was not named for legal reasons as he was still living at the time of the report. Domenico Italiano arrived in Melbourne in 1930 and entered into a partnership with Barbaro making Melbourne the most dominant cell. Eventually Italiano was named as Godfather while Barbaro worked as his enforcer. ASIO agent Colin Brown's 1965 report, which was headed "The Italian Criminal Society in Australia", found that "Secrecy and allegiance to the organisation [was] increasingly ensured by the intermarriage of families within it" and that children born into the families were brought up to take part. It repeated the recommendations and warnings found in both the Cusack and Macera reports. The Brown report was never made public.
The recommendations of the Cusack, Macera and Brown reports were ignored and their warnings came true, the 'ndrangheta diversified into drugs and other organised crime and invested heavily in legitimate businesses to launder its profits. The Society did not come to police attention again until the July 1977 murder of Donald Mackay, Australia's first political assassination, for his anti-drugs campaign. The public outcry resulted in the Woodward Royal Commission (1977–1979) which found that the 'ndrangheta were firmly entrenched in Australia.