Book Launch - To Save Beach "The Undercurrent" - Free Community Event

Join author Sandra Bourke and special guest Sharon Kuperholz for the Melbourne launch of To Save a Beach: The Story of Reckless Renewables, published by Connor Court Books with a foreword by Chris Uhlmann.

The story begins at Hawks Nest Beach, where Sandra’s family has lived for four generations, when the government declares an offshore wind zone off the coast. What began as a fight to save one beach became a journey through communities confronting industrial renewable energy projects, and a deeper examination of political power, democracy and what happens when governments stop listening.

Travelling by campervan through Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, Sandra and her husband Bruce Murray, a retired Royal Australian Air Force Wing Commander, met Australians determined to protect the places they call home. These accounts share a common experience: warnings dismissed, communities divided, and people vilified for speaking up.

This event will focus on two chapters, The Undercurrent and Neo-Nazis on the Hustings. They explore the surge of antisemitism following 7 October, the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea, and the hostility Sandra witnessed on the campaign trail.

In 2025, Australian volunteers from different backgrounds, including Jewish Australians, came together at polling booths across Melbourne and Brisbane. While handing out how-to-vote cards, they faced Greens campaigners calling them neo-Nazis. Sandra stood beside them and recorded their experiences in the book.

The Greens’ defeat at the Prahran by-election and their loss of three of four federal lower house seats in 2025, including leader Adam Bandt’s seat of Melbourne, demonstrate what organised communities can help achieve.

With the Victorian state election on 28 November approaching, the book carries important lessons for that contest and the next federal election: how communities can come together to fight antisemitism, defend democracy, be heard, and shape our political future.

Sandra will give a short presentation and read selected passages. She will be joined by Sharon Kuperholz, the community leader behind J-COM Events Melbourne, whose work mobilising Melbourne’s Jewish community features in the book.

Stay for light refreshments and conversation with the people who lived these stories. Signed copies will be available to purchase.

RSVP essential. The Elwood venue address will be sent to registered guests three days before the event.