A thirty-six-year-old man has been charged in New South Wales after allegedly displaying Nazi and white supremacist tattoos at a popular family beach, prompting a police investigation and legal action under Australia’s strengthened hate-symbol laws.

The incident occurred on December twenty-fourth at Bar Beach in Newcastle when members of the public reported seeing the man’s visible tattoos linked to prohibited Nazi imagery, including Schutzstaffel emblems and “white power” references, while he was accompanied by a woman and children.

Witnesses also reported that the man made a white power hand gesture before leaving the scene.

A local resident photographed the tattoos and reported the matter to Crime Stoppers and New South Wales Police, with detectives from Coffs Harbour and officers from Operation Shelter, the state’s taskforce for antisemitic incidents, taking carriage of the investigation.

Police located the thirty-six-year-old at a home in Urunga, where he was arrested and charged with knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol and causing such a symbol to be displayed in public without lawful excuse.

The man was taken to Coffs Harbour Police Station and later granted strict conditional bail, including orders that he not display prohibited symbols, and is due to appear in Newcastle Local Court on January twenty-second, twenty-twenty-six.

The case is an early test of expanded provisions in the Crimes Act that define a “public act” to include observable conduct such as visible tattoos, reflecting recent legislative efforts in New South Wales to curb the display of hate symbols and protect community cohesion.

Supporters of the police response have underscored the importance of discouraging the public exhibition of extremist ideologies, particularly in family-oriented public spaces, as the nation confronts broader debates over hate speech and social unity.