White supremacist bootcamp takes over Elwood beach

Jewish leaders and politicians have condemned a white supremacist training bootcamp held beside a popular beach in Melbourne’s south-east, where teenagers joined neo-Nazis to run through boxing drills and a flag was unfurled for a propaganda photo shoot.

As the rain drove most windsurfers from the swells of Elwood beach on Saturday afternoon, a group of about 35 men and boys gathered at a reserve nearby, dressed in nondescript fitness gear and the odd camouflage jacket.

Jacob Hersant, in black and red T-shirt, and others conduct fitness drills in Elwood.Credit: The Age

They looked like any other fitness bootcamp at the park. But among them were key figures of neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network, including Jacob Hersant, who last year became the first person in Victoria charged and jailed for performing the now-outlawed Nazi salute.

The group’s public training day was held in Macnamara, the federal electorate of Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns, whose offices have previously been targeted with antisemitic vandalism. When alerted to the display by The Age, Burns condemned the gathering.

On Saturday, The Age observed the men run through military and boxing drills, sparring, lifting weights and carrying each other in fireman lifts for about two hours. Capturing it all, even through frequent torrents of rain, was a photographer attached to the group.

About three of those training appeared to be young teenagers, and a boy with the group sometimes joined in sparring, or took photos of the men.

As locals walked their dogs at the beach, they were apparently oblivious to the training camp behind the scrub just metres away.

One man flew a kite with his young daughter nearby on the lawn. And later, as the sun returned, a clutch of young mothers with toddlers and prams stopped by to join the men and watch them train.

Then finally the group’s snapper called the men together – and a flag of the far-right European Australian Movement (founded by neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell) was unfurled for a brief group photoshoot.

White supremacists pose with the flag of the Australian European Movement at Elwood Beach.Credit: The Age

That flag’s symbol is not itself outlawed in Victoria, and Victoria Police confirmed no offence had been committed.

Burns, whose grandmother escaped the Holocaust, said: “I know as a Jewish Australian just how confronting it is to see white supremacists on our streets – especially in a place as welcoming and inclusive as Elwood.

“The cowards who hide behind hateful bigotry are not welcome in our community or anywhere.”

A white supremacist bootcamp in ElwoodCredit: The Age

Alex Ryvchin, chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the gathering underscored the need to address a rise in antisemitism in Australia since the Israel-Gaza war broke out.

One disturbing consequence, Ryvchin said, “has been the growth of neo-Nazi and white nationalist recruitment and public demonstrations”.

“While unconcerned by the Israel-Hamas war, they sense the country is experiencing a period of antisemitism they can exploit ... They seek to manipulate the young, equip them with a sense of mission and fill their minds with fantasies blaming all the ills of societies on a familiar enemy.”

Local neo-Nazis have been documented recruiting aggressively among young men in Australia, including minors, as they plot building a racist new-world order from their houses and gyms in suburban Melbourne.

The Victorian government and Victorian opposition have been contacted for comment.

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