Ferny Creek: Ex-home of notorious cult The Family, led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, hits the market

A property in Melbourne’s outer southeast formerly owned by a notorious Australian cult named The Family is for sale. See inside the doomsday religious group’s creepy ex-worship site.

The Ferny Creek property includes a hall formerly owned by a cult named The Family. Children in the religious group had their hair dyed blonde, as detailed in the ABC documentary series titled The Cult Of The Family. Right picture: Supplied/ABC.

A notorious apocalyptic cult’s semi-derelict former home in Melbourne’s outer southeast is for sale with a $1.5m-$1.65m asking range.

The property at 31-35 Belgrave-Ferny Creek Rd, Ferny Creek, was previously owned by the Santiniketan Park Association – another name by which The Family religious sect was known.

It consists of two lots, the largest of which measures 3.11ha and features a graffitied brick building with damaged windows.

RELATED: ‘Extremist’ UFO cult’s $9m sell-off

Frankston house too dangerous to inspect after 30 years abandoned sold in ‘mad’ auction

Chilling reason Aussie home projects abandoned before completion

The listing describes the circa-1970s community hall as large enough to hold about 100 people.

According to 1980s media reports, the hall was built by ex-cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne and her followers who would hold regular services there.

One-time yoga teacher Hamilton-Byrne formed a New Age-like worship group while claiming that she was a reincarnation of Jesus, in the 1960s.

In 1987, The Family’s Lake Eildon compound was raided by police amid allegations of child abuse.

A number of children were removed from the premises, who were later discovered to have been adopted through illegal means.

The youngsters were allegedly subjected to beatings, starvation and forced to take drugs.

Inside the community hall that was built by The Family members in the 1970s, that is today owned by the Tibetan Cultural Society.

Children in the cult were led to believe that Anne Hamilton-Byrne was their birth mother. Picture: Supplied/The Family Cult.

A story on cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s arrest was front page news for the Herald Sun, in June 1993.

In the eighties, some of the grown-up children told a television show hosted by journalist Mike Willesee that they had been beaten with a bamboo stick and had their heads dunked in buckets of water for perceived “sins” such as wearing odd socks or having dirt on their smock, on Hamilton-Byrne’s orders.

Many of the children had their hair dyed blonde at the instruction of Hamilton-Byrne who taught that they would lead a new world order after a nuclear holocaust.

The cult was the subject of a 2016 documentary and companion book titled The Family: The Shocking True Story of a Notorious Cult, written by Chris Johnston and Rose Jones. Picture: Supplied/The Family Cult.

Cult members would hold regular services at the hall, where Anne Hamilton-Byrne would sit in a purple chair below a large crucifix.

Hamilton-Byrne and her husband Bill Byrne left Australia for the US, but were eventually arrested in 1993.

She was charged with conspiracy to defraud and commit perjury in relation to the adoption scams, but those charges were eventually dropped.

Hamilton-Byrne and her husband each pleaded guilty to making a false declaration and were fined a few thousand dollars.

The Family leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne photographed on her way to court in the 1990s.

Hamilton-Byrne was thought to have kept several cats, whom she believed to be reincarnations of humans, at the Ferny Creek property’s rear.

In 2019, a 98-year-old Hamilton-Byrne died during a class action trial against her and a charity run by other cult members.

Cult survivors banded together to sue for alleged “cruel and inhumane treatment” such as assaults resulting in physical and psychiatric injuries between 1968 and 1987.

A proposed $600,000 settlement was offered to the survivors in 2020.

Public records show that the Santiniketan Park Association transferred the Ferny Creek site to the current owners, the Tibetan Cultural Society, five years ago.

An aerial shot of the property.

The property has a gated, tree-lined driveway that opens to the brick hall, open spaces and a car park.

The building itself has two separate rooms and two bathrooms.

Alongside the larger block, a smaller neighbouring vacant property is also being offered for sale with $590,000-$649,000 price hopes.

Fletchers Yarra Ranges’ director Scott Allison declined to comment.

The Ferny Creek site is close to Tecoma and Belgrave villages.

A 1987 newspaper story stated that Hamilton-Byrne was thought to have kept several cats in specially-built houses at the Ferny Creek property’s rear.

The cats were said to be reincarnations of humans who had not learned the wisdom of their owner’s spiritual path.

In 2022, an Olinda home linked to Hamilton-Byrne sold for $1.2m.

The cult founder was believed to have lived at the 12-bedroom homestead.

And in 2019, author J. P. Pomare wrote In the Clearing, a fictional thriller that was based on The Family’s history.

Disney+ turned the book into a television series, The Clearing, starring Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto and Teresa Palmer, which aired in 2023.

---

Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.

MORE: 2025 Houses Awards: Bushfire ready steel treehouse among short-listed Vic projects

PropTrack: See what your Melbour suburb’s typical house will be worth in 2030

Arrotex pharma boss billionaire Dennis Bastas firming as buyer of $100m+ mansion in Toorak

Originally published as Ferny Creek: Ex-home of notorious cult The Family, led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, hits the market