On a balmy Friday afternoon in Melbourne, Renee Buckingham set off down a sandy track for a swim at her local beach.

It was a path the St Kilda local had traced many times.

The 31-year-old had just completed a run, parked her car at a nearby petrol station in Elwood, and, as the sun beat down, she felt the cool, beckoning call of the waves.

But as Renee approached a fenced dog park, she caught sight of a man in his twenties washing what appeared to be a crack pipe in the bubbler.

They made eye contact.

The four words that came next would change the course of her afternoon.

Watch: Renee Buckingham describes the confronting incident in St Kilda. Post continues below.

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Renee Buckingham describes a frightening beach encounter in Melbourne.

"He yelled out, 'you're gonna get raped'," Renee told Mamamia, adding she initially thought he wasn't talking to her.

"I kept walking towards the water. Then he said, 'I'm gonna rape you'."

There was no mistaking it. Renee understood the danger she was in. She sped towards a couple walking ahead.

"I said to them, 'Hey, can I walk with you? I'm quite concerned this man over there is yelling that he's going to rape me'," she recounted.

"As I was explaining that to them, the man yelled out again to the boyfriend, 'I'm not gonna rape your girlfriend, I'm gonna rape her,' and pointed to me."

At that moment, all thoughts of a swim were abandoned.

"This was targeted aggression at me. This is about me now," she said.

"I asked this beautiful couple if they could walk me back around to my car on a different route."

The pair agreed to take her back to her car via a different route. The man did not follow, but the words lingered.

The sun was beating down during Renee's afternoon run. Then a stranger shouted four words that changed the course of her afternoon. Image: Supplied.

"They were like, 'That's really bad, you need to call the police.' And to be honest, I thought, 'Oh no, like, really? Do you think I should call the police?'"

It's a hesitation many women will recognise — the instinct to downplay, to rationalise, to avoid being seen as overreacting.

"I was shocked. Once I arrived safely at my car, I couldn't believe it had happened," Renee said.

"I don't know whether other women have experienced this, but you just tend to dismiss it. I felt a sense of, 'am I just taking up their time when they've probably got lives to save or bigger things happening'?"

Renee uploaded a video about the encounter online and the response was swift. The majority of comments were supportive and also encouraged her to report.

But others, mostly from men, were not.

"So many men were just making this a woman's issue or a racial issue, asking the colour of this man's skin," Renee said. "I was disgusted, but not surprised."

The responses didn't stop there.

"Men will say, and they have online, 'Oh, well, you're in swimmers' or 'you should carry pepper spray' or 'learn self-defence'," Renee explained.

"No, I should feel safe walking down the street in broad daylight to go for a swim, like every other male has a right, or every other human has a right."

Shortly after filming the video in her car, Renee tried to find patrolling officers she'd seen earlier on the beach to report the incident to.

A tearful Renee tried to locate patrolling officers on the beach to draw their attention to the threat. Image: Supplied.

When she couldn't locate the officers, she wound up calling the police instead.

The police contacted Renee to encourage her to give a formal statement. On that call, she was told the threat constituted "an arrestable offence."

"I felt almost shameful that I initially hesitated reporting to the police," Renee admitted. "I do think that it is all too common for women to just go 'no, no, I'll take the safety measures, but I am probably overacting'."

Dealing with the aftermath.

Renee admitted she didn't want to think about what could've happened if she were alone — or if it had been dark out.

In the days since, the emotions have come in waves.

"I felt icky, I felt sad," she said. "To be exposed to not only an encounter like this, but also a world of people online that still believe this is a female issue and that it's my responsibility to learn self-defence — I feel frustrated we're still here."

She hasn't heard back from the police since giving her statement.

In a statement supplied to Mamamia, Victoria Police confirmed the "investigation remains ongoing."

"Police are investigating reports of a woman being threatened in Elwood on 20 February," the statement said. "Officers responded to reports of a woman being threatened in a dog park on Marine Parade about 5.40pm. Despite a thorough search of the area, the male offender was not located. There were no physical injuries."

Police have urged anyone who witnessed the incident or has dashcam footage to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online.

Renee wants other women to understand their instincts are valid and threats like this are not trivial.

"To any woman who experiences any kind of verbal abuse or aggression, you are within your rights to report that," she said. "I hope they don't feel what I felt and feel a bit silly about doing that. Your feelings are valid.

"I also don't want to put fear in people's minds. I'm going to go back to this beach, but I will be a lot more cautious about walking alone in certain areas."

Feature image: Supplied.