FIRST Campbell Newman declared war on the bikies. Now he has enlisted a former top soldier to lead the battle.

Retired Brigadier Bill Mellor, under whom Mr Newman served when he was in the army, is overseeing the State Government's bikie blitz, it can be revealed.

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The former infantry platoon commander and army helicopter pilot, who took on violent warlords in Somalia in the 1990s during a 32-year army career, has been hired on a 12-month contract as head of strategy for the Government's crackdown on criminal gangs.

His high-powered role as chief of the anti-bikie Strategic Monitoring Team includes co-ordinating police enforcement and security of government buildings after threats against Mr Newman and his minsters.

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Brig Mellor had been serving as a disaster recovery co-ordinator after Cyclone Oswald smashed Queensland in January, but was taken off relief duties to help fight the bikies.

Neither he nor the Government would reveal his salary, but it was confirmed he had been hired personally, not through either of the two companies he set up after retiring from the military in 2003.

Mr Newman served under Brig Mellor during his 12-year army career, but a spokesman for the Premier rejected suggestions of "jobs for the boys" appointment.

Brig Mellor's credentials included helping set up the first army Black Hawk helicopter unit, leading Australian peacekeeping troops in Somalia and serving as a military attache in Washington after 9/11 and the war in Iraq.

Brig Mellor said he had agreed to lead the anti-bikie blitz because gangs were a "serious" problem.

He said something had to be done after 60 bikies brawled openly outside a Gold Coast restaurant before laying siege to Southport police station to demand the release of fellow gang members.

"I was obviously concerned. It required a whole-of-government response and my job is to help co-ordinate just that, I think it's going pretty well," he said.