Calls have grown for the Australian government to add a white nationalist group to their anti-terror list, after members congregated in Victoria.
A group of nearly forty men from the National Socialist Network burned a cross, shouted racist slogans and did Hitler salutes at Lake Bellfield in the Grampians on Sunday evening.
Witnesses also said that the group terrorised locals while making anti-Semitic slogans.
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Dr Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said the risk posed by far-right groups should be taken seriously.
"Make no mistake, the dangerous rhetoric that these Hitler worshippers are spewing can cross the line into real-world lethal attacks," he told news.com.au.
Halls Gap local Saskia Elling told news.com.au she was with a group of friends near where the group had gathered.
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"My partner said he saw someone chanting 'white power'. Then an hour later they chanted 'Ku Klux Klan'. It was intimidating, we were happy to be on the other side of the lake."
Another resident - who didn't want to be named - said the group told them they self-identified as neo-nazis.
"They asked what they were doing and they said they were neo-Nazis and KKK and then they began chanting. I came to this area to feel safe. I never thought living out here I'd be in danger of extremist groups," he told the website.
"You look at these people and they're the ones you fear the most. They're like a cut snake, you just don't know what they'd do."
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Despite police responding to multiple calls to the area regarding the group, no members have been arrested.
Dr Abramovich said the lack of action wasn't good enough and it was time to implement strong penalties on racists and 'hateful ideologies'.
"Who would have thought in 2021 Australia, in a week in which we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the modern face of Hitler would reveal itself in our state without consequence?
"Neo-Nazi ideologies and rallies are alive and well in Victoria, and these homegrown SS soldiers, who dream of a Fourth Reich with an Australian Hitler at the helm, are a clear and present danger, agitating for a racial war and recruiting like-minded bigots."
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The anti-terrorism squad of Victoria Police are now reportedly investigating the group.
Topics: Australia