Sissy Austin shares photos of attack by man in Lal Lal state forest near Ballarat Victoria

A woman has been left bloodied and bruised after being beaten with a make-shift weapon by an unidentified man while running in a forest.  

The 28-year-old Indigenous rights’ campaigner and former Greens candidate, Sissy Austin, was running along a motorcycle track in the Lal Lal state forest, south-east of Ballarat in Victoria, at around 4.30pm on February 11 when she was attacked.

She was struck in the head by a rock tied to the end of a stick, knocking her unconscious.

Indigenous rights’ activist, Sissy Austin, 28, was beaten by an unidentified man while running in the Lal Lal state forest near Ballarat on Saturday

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Ms Austin posted photos of herself before and after the attack at the hands of a man with a rock tied to a stick

Ms Austin awoke a few minutes later, bloodied, dizzy and with her attacker nowhere to be found.

She ran four kilometres back to her car to alert emergency services.

‘Had to get 4kms back to my car before I called police and an ambulance came and got me,’ Ms Austin posted on Facebook.

‘Home now from hospital but in shock with a massive throbbing headache. 

‘Women should be able to safely go for a f***ing run in this colony.’

In the same post, Ms Austin added an image of her shortly after the beating showing her top lip cut and swollen, blood coming from her nose and splattered across her face.

Outside of the physical injuries, Ms Austin said she is mentally coming to terms with  the vulnerability of being attacked in what she felt was a safe place.

‘That place is my safe, go-to place. I feel like I’m [now] grieving that place now,’ she told the ABC.

‘I run out there all the time. It’s beautiful country, Wathaurong country.’

The Lal Lal state forest is a ‘safe, go-to place’ for Ms Austin who said she is now ‘grieving that place’

Victoria Police said the offender was white, and was not wearing any top or shoes – just black jeans and a cap.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.  

Ms Austin, a Djab Wurrung woman, was one of the inaugural members of the First People’s Assembly in Victoria.

She was also a Senate candidate for the Greens in 2022.