It has been 40 years since thousands of young people rioted in the streets of Newcastle over the closure of popular music venue, the Star Hotel.

Key points: The Star Hotel riot made headlines around the world

The Star Hotel riot made headlines around the world Australian band Cold Chisel immortalised the event in a song, Star Hotel

Australian band Cold Chisel immortalised the event in a song, Star Hotel A new documentary about the riot can be seen on YouTube

That rock'n'roll act of defiance put Newcastle on the map and inspired Cold Chisel to pen a song — Star Hotel.

On September 19, 1979 around 4,000 young people turned up to the Star Hotel, a popular live music venue with a capacity of just 200.

At the time, the hotel was the place to go for cheap drinks and a good time but the publican had been under pressure to close the doors for good.

Violence erupted when a handful of New South Wales police tried to enforce the 10pm live music curfew on the crowd.

Police began to be pelted with bottles and cans and the riot peaked when police cars were tipped over and set alight.

New footage discovered

Barry Nancarrow was then a 29-year-old cameraman for the local NBN News when he captured the event on camera.

His six minutes of edited footage was beamed around Australia and the world, but an additional 16 minutes of raw footage was lost — until now.

The Newcastle Museum commissioned a new documentary to capture the complete story and unearthed the footage.

Barry Nancarrow won a Logie award for his coverage of the 1979 Star Hotel riot. ( ABC Newcastle: Ben Millington )

"I just became so focussed on the six minutes that was the television story that I just completely forgot about all the other stuff," Mr Nancarrow said.

"The documentary is great because it's not just worried about what went to air.

"A local filmmaker has managed to dig up this fresh footage which has breathed new life into a new subject and it's there now for everyone to see."

The raw footage and documentary, Stories Of Our Town: The Star Hotel Riot, were both uploaded to YouTube last week.

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Crowd-sourced stories unearth fresh facts

Filmmaker Glenn Dormand, who goes by the name Chit Chat von Loopin Stab, said social media helped him build a complete picture of the event.

"I'm a fan of this Facebook site called Lost Newcastle," he said.

"It has 45,000 members just discussing and arguing about the past which, for an older man, I love.

"The details that people give on those sites are incredible because, when historians tell it, they tell what they've read.

"But it's the nuanced details that a person [has] with their own story, that's what makes modern storytelling and that's what I've been collecting."

Chit Chat von Loopin Stab (left) with members of The Heroes, Mark Tinson and Peter De Jong, during filming of the documentary. ( ABC Newcastle: Anthony Scully )

The lost footage shows, for the first time, that fire hoses were used in a desperate attempt to subdue the crowd.

"In fact, the firemen had refused to do it and then they started getting hit with rocks," Mr Dormand said.

"And they were like, 'well, bugger that', and the cops and everyone were just hitting people with the hoses."

What caused the Star Hotel riot?

The Star Hotel of today presents itself as a chic restaurant and laneway bar with the bulk of the building repurposed as apartments.

But in the 1970s it was a popular live music venue offering patrons live local bands six nights a week.

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Musicians from The Heroes and Meccalissa appear in the documentary, explaining how the riot unfolded.

Greg Bryce, whose band Meccalissa performed on the night of the riot, witnessed the clashes between police and revellers.

"In hindsight, it would have been great for the police to just put up a detour sign," he said.

"Everything would have calmed down, there wouldn't have been any riot."

Greg Bryce watched the riot unfold outside the Star Hotel after his band played. ( ABC Newcastle: Anthony Scully )

Lead singer of The Heroes Peter De Jong was charged by police with sedition, a charge which was later dropped.

"It was suggested that I had caused the riot, courtesy of a few words I'd said on stage," De Jong said.

"And when the timeline was eventually unpicked, it was clear that the riot was in progress before I had uttered those immortal words."

Police and rioters agree that times have moved on and the situation would be handled differently now.

"You would close off the street, you'd have portaloos, you'd have mid-strength beer, you would have the security," Mr Dorman said.

"I mean, think about these 4,000 drunk people in a street who had started drinking full-strength beer at midday and not one bit of security to protect anyone. Imagine that happening."