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That night, according to spokesman Jim Saleam, the bands would play at a private Australia Day function in the Sutherland Shire - site of the 2005 Cronulla riots - at which the party would try to recruit young supporters ahead of its planned bid for seats on several NSW councils and registration as a federal political party.

The press archives are littered with similar claims of rising influence from Australia First and its predecessor, National Action - notorious for its involvement in a series of violent incidents. And there have been previous and unsuccessful election bids.

But the Cronulla riots, racist activity surrounding plans to build an Islamic school in the Sydney suburb of Camden, and the fake leaflet affair - involving the husband of former Liberal MP Jackie Kelly - apparently designed to capitalise on anti-Islamic fears in the electorate of Lindsay, have some worried that this time Australia First could be right.

Mr Saleam describes Australia First as nationalist, anti-immigration, anti-trade and anti-multiculturalism.

After a few Australia Day drinks, the membership begins to expand on these themes.

Terry [Cooksley], a 69-year-old from the Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt, admits he likes to see people like himself when he walks down the street, which he says is “only natural” given our bodily germs form “a defence system against foreigners”.

Terry’s theory on cross-cultural marriage is similarly original: we only marry outside our racial group in a sub-conscious attempt to punish our mothers or fathers.

Mike, “about 54″, from Bexley, says he backs an end to migration because “people from the Third World don’t know how to live in a civilised world”. They mug people on their way to the corner shop, Mike says, confiding that he has “been confronted about three or four times by people of Middle Eastern appearance” because “I like to wear military dress”. He is, incidentally, also wearing a T-shirt declaring No Camel Jockey races on the Beach. It has a picture of a man on a camel and a line through it.

Mike admits he was not actually assaulted, but says that’s what his assailants “wanted to do” after he informed them of his previous service in the military. Actually, he was in the reserves for a time back in the 1970s and “I come from a military family that I’m very proud of”.

“Fantasy” is how Bruce Baird, the former federal MP for the electorate which covers the Sutherland Shire, describes Australia First’s belief in its growing influence. “I think (the idea) that they’re making any progress at all is illusory.”

Mr Baird says the racism that came to a head at Cronulla “has been defused and addressed” and that Australia First’s chances of winning a seat on the Sutherland Shire council are zilch.

Michael Kennedy, a former detective and now lecturer in police studies at the University of Western Sydney, is not so sure.

Parties like Australia First will always “appeal to a certain percentage of the community”, he says, but now there was a “growing base of people” in NSW who were susceptible to nationalist ideas because of disillusionment with the state’s mainstream political parties and the crumbling health and transport systems.

Australia First could well win a seat on a council, Mr Kennedy says, but the party’s real danger lies in its ability to “fuel the racist fire”.

In any case, Mr Saleam says his party views elections as “only part . . . of what we do”. It is also interested in “inculcating attitudes and extending . . . the idea of cultural defence” and in more confrontationist politics of the type employed by National Action before its demise.

But, he says, “you need to be much more careful of confrontation now because of the nature of the laws”. Mr Saleam was in jail in the early ’90s for being an accessory to a gun attack on the residence of an African National Congress representative.

“If you use confrontation, you have to use it in a much more precise and scientific way otherwise you’ll simply be arrested,” he says - and then tries to usher The Age out of the party, so that he can brief the band members and others heading down to Cronulla on how to avoid arrest that night.

Which might not be necessary. Lead singer of the band Machete, known as Ryan, doesn’t appear to be planning much in the way of “cultural defence”: “We heard there was a gig going on, we had nothing better to do so we come up here and just figured, what the hell, let’s . . . play some metal.”

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Describing Camden as an Anglo-Saxon community, he yesterday told The Australian the school would be the start of an unwelcome Muslim campaign to “smash up the homogeneity of the area”. Mr Saleam was involved in the 2005 Cronulla race riots, claiming his organisation had recruited 120 members for the mob demonstration.

The proposed Islamic school at Camden is becoming a state political issue. It has split one of the longest-established minor parties in the NSW upper house, Reverend Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats.

Mr Nile addressed a rowdy anti-school meeting in Camden last Wednesday, saying the proposal would force thousands of Muslims on to the mainly Christian semi-rural community.

But the only other member of the Christian Democrats to hold a seat in the NSW parliament, the Reverend Gordon Moyes, yesterday said Mr Nile had gone against a recent party state executive reaffirming no opposition to Islamic schools. He hinted he would try to persuade the state executive to sanction Mr Nile.

The school proposal is expected to come before Camden council early next year for planning approval.

Camden Mayor Chris Patterson yesterday expressed concern that the issue was becoming a drawcard for right-wing groups.

“What we don’t want is other organisations attempting to use this as a national issue or an immigration issue,” he said.

NSW police are understood to be worried about the prospect ofethnic violence, holding a confidential meeting with councillors and community leaders late last week.

Of about 3500 public submissions concerning the school, all but about 20 had opposed it, Mr Patterson said.

Premier Morris Iemma yesterday said he was “aware of the opposition” to the school but added that “some of the scenes from (the public meeting on Wednesday) were disturbing”.

Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell concurred with Mr Iemma in saying the proposed school should be assessed according to planning laws, and attacked Mr Nile for stirring up religious tension. “It’s as dumb as pigs’ heads on stakes,” Mr O’Farrell said of Mr Nile’s contribution, referring to a recent incident where anti-school activists placed such macabre objects at the proposed site.

Efforts to contact the Quranic Society were unsuccessful. But the legal representative for the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Haset Ali, yesterday said the school would fill a strong demand for Islamic education and serve as a moderating influence in the Muslim community.

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