1 00:00:18,626 --> 00:00:20,411 [dramatic music] 2 00:00:20,541 --> 00:00:23,283 - [Reporter] Why did you start to take in the children? 3 00:00:23,414 --> 00:00:25,894 - [Anne] Over 21 years, 28 young people 4 00:00:26,025 --> 00:00:27,244 went through our hands. 5 00:00:27,374 --> 00:00:28,636 - [Reporter] Why did you do that? 6 00:00:28,767 --> 00:00:29,420 - I love children. 7 00:00:31,813 --> 00:00:33,293 - Once she became the leader of a cult 8 00:00:33,424 --> 00:00:35,600 and could get whatever she wanted, 9 00:00:35,687 --> 00:00:38,777 one thing that she wanted was lots of little children. 10 00:00:38,907 --> 00:00:42,215 - When a child is born, delivered by sect doctors, 11 00:00:42,346 --> 00:00:44,783 given to a sect nurse, and within a period 12 00:00:44,870 --> 00:00:48,569 of 15, 20 minutes from birth, child born, child taken. 13 00:00:49,918 --> 00:00:52,486 - [Roland] She was preparing us for when the time happens 14 00:00:52,617 --> 00:00:55,185 to reeducate the world, what's left of it. 15 00:00:56,969 --> 00:00:58,231 - There was a glamour about Anne 16 00:00:58,362 --> 00:01:01,495 that meant that all the men were besotted. 17 00:01:01,626 --> 00:01:04,107 Bill was totally beglamoured. 18 00:01:04,237 --> 00:01:06,674 - When they come out of the LSD experience 19 00:01:06,761 --> 00:01:09,024 they actually believe that she is Jesus Christ. 20 00:01:09,155 --> 00:01:10,548 - There's such secrecy around her. 21 00:01:10,678 --> 00:01:12,811 Devotees would do anything to protect Anne. 22 00:01:14,726 --> 00:01:15,988 - When they hit the news in Australia, 23 00:01:16,119 --> 00:01:17,032 they pick up sticks and move to England. 24 00:01:17,163 --> 00:01:18,643 - [Man] When Anne and Bill were there, 25 00:01:18,773 --> 00:01:21,298 we'd be disciplined heavily by her and by Bill. 26 00:01:21,428 --> 00:01:23,996 - [Man] The drug was given to me by my father. 27 00:01:24,083 --> 00:01:26,912 Anne was there, and it was done under her instruction. 28 00:01:26,999 --> 00:01:29,001 - What was going on was wrong. 29 00:01:29,088 --> 00:01:30,742 Someone had to do something about it. 30 00:01:34,963 --> 00:01:38,010 ♪ Waiting for redemption ♪ 31 00:01:38,097 --> 00:01:42,101 ♪ Like a dog expecting a reward ♪ 32 00:01:42,275 --> 00:01:46,540 ♪ Is this the endless point of nothing ♪ 33 00:01:46,714 --> 00:01:51,632 ♪ Or the coming of the Lord ♪ 34 00:01:52,372 --> 00:01:55,897 ♪ Come on, give me a sign ♪ 35 00:01:56,071 --> 00:02:00,772 ♪ Show me your love is real ♪ 36 00:02:01,990 --> 00:02:05,124 ♪ Oh Saint Valentine ♪ 37 00:02:05,211 --> 00:02:08,345 ♪ Is this part of the deal ♪ 38 00:02:13,132 --> 00:02:16,570 [police radio chattering] 39 00:02:23,577 --> 00:02:25,753 [slow music] 40 00:02:40,028 --> 00:02:41,726 [dog barking] 41 00:02:41,856 --> 00:02:44,468 - [Man] All of a sudden the door bursts open. 42 00:02:44,555 --> 00:02:46,121 - [Woman] People broke into our house 43 00:02:46,209 --> 00:02:48,776 and came loudly down the stairs. 44 00:02:50,038 --> 00:02:51,953 - [Woman] You're Anouree. 45 00:02:52,084 --> 00:02:54,608 - We're going away. - Anouree. 46 00:02:54,739 --> 00:02:55,914 - We are. - You can trust us. 47 00:02:56,001 --> 00:02:56,958 - [Child] Are we going to go away-- 48 00:02:57,089 --> 00:02:58,612 - [Detective] Great big deep breaths. 49 00:02:58,743 --> 00:02:59,831 Good girl. 50 00:02:59,961 --> 00:03:01,702 [woman sobbing] 51 00:03:01,833 --> 00:03:03,138 Okay, everybody. 52 00:03:03,226 --> 00:03:05,053 I'll explain to you what's going to happen. 53 00:03:05,184 --> 00:03:06,838 - [Child] They taking them somewhere. 54 00:03:06,925 --> 00:03:08,231 - [Detective] We realise it's very, very stressful for you. 55 00:03:08,361 --> 00:03:09,971 - [Child] Where are they going? 56 00:03:10,102 --> 00:03:13,279 You broke Mum and Dad's heart. 57 00:03:13,366 --> 00:03:14,889 - [Announcer] Well investigations are still underway 58 00:03:15,020 --> 00:03:18,066 into a religious sect in Victoria known as The Family. 59 00:03:18,153 --> 00:03:19,938 At the weekend, six children were seized 60 00:03:20,025 --> 00:03:22,027 from a property owned by the sect at Lake Eildon 61 00:03:22,157 --> 00:03:23,855 about two hours from Melbourne. 62 00:03:23,985 --> 00:03:24,856 Five of the children have appeared 63 00:03:24,986 --> 00:03:25,944 in a Melbourne Children's Court 64 00:03:26,074 --> 00:03:28,338 under care and protection applications. 65 00:03:28,468 --> 00:03:29,861 - [Reporter] Children stolen at birth, 66 00:03:29,991 --> 00:03:31,689 brainwashed, beaten, even given 67 00:03:31,819 --> 00:03:34,605 mind-altering drugs like LSD. 68 00:03:34,735 --> 00:03:36,998 The list of the abuses at The Family's isolated retreat 69 00:03:37,085 --> 00:03:38,130 near Melbourne goes on. 70 00:03:46,138 --> 00:03:49,184 [slow dramatic music] 71 00:03:53,450 --> 00:03:55,582 - It was early December and it looked as though Melbourne 72 00:03:55,669 --> 00:03:57,105 was heading into a very hot summer. 73 00:03:59,151 --> 00:04:02,676 I was in the arson squad, Victoria Police Arson Squad. 74 00:04:02,807 --> 00:04:05,853 We got a call to attend a fire at a school near Ferny Creek. 75 00:04:08,116 --> 00:04:10,380 There was a student in the school, 76 00:04:10,467 --> 00:04:12,425 a young fella by the name of Roland Whitaker. 77 00:04:14,079 --> 00:04:16,211 The local senior constable, he said to me, 78 00:04:16,342 --> 00:04:20,433 "Roland's parents are tied up with this religious sect." 79 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:21,304 And that was the first I'd ever heard 80 00:04:21,434 --> 00:04:23,001 of this cult called The Family. 81 00:04:28,267 --> 00:04:32,053 His first words were, "Don't get involved. 82 00:04:32,184 --> 00:04:35,492 "If you get involved, it'll be with you for a lifetime." 83 00:04:39,060 --> 00:04:40,975 He told me that the leader of The Family 84 00:04:41,106 --> 00:04:43,282 was this woman called Anne Hamilton-Byrne. 85 00:04:46,024 --> 00:04:48,069 The sect commenced in the 1960s 86 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:51,377 and was based in Ferny Creek on the outskirts of Melbourne. 87 00:04:58,384 --> 00:05:01,213 The sect was made up of professional people 88 00:05:01,344 --> 00:05:05,957 who worshipped Anne Hamilton-Byrne as Jesus Christ 89 00:05:07,219 --> 00:05:08,786 reincarnated in the female form. 90 00:05:12,093 --> 00:05:13,791 - [Anne] I'm looking right at each one of you. 91 00:05:17,490 --> 00:05:18,535 You are the initiate. 92 00:05:18,622 --> 00:05:20,145 You are the cosmic being. 93 00:05:23,061 --> 00:05:24,715 You're staring into the awakening. 94 00:05:27,457 --> 00:05:29,850 - [Roland] Under the influence of LSD, 95 00:05:29,981 --> 00:05:33,811 well Auntie Anne had this vision that she's got to collect 96 00:05:33,898 --> 00:05:35,160 all these children from birth 97 00:05:37,205 --> 00:05:41,296 because one day there's going to be either World War III 98 00:05:41,384 --> 00:05:44,430 or natural disasters galore 99 00:05:45,823 --> 00:05:48,391 where most of the population of the world's going to perish. 100 00:05:48,478 --> 00:05:51,132 [slow music] 101 00:05:52,220 --> 00:05:55,528 She was preparing us for when the time happens, 102 00:05:55,659 --> 00:05:59,184 to reeducate the world, what's left of it. 103 00:06:02,013 --> 00:06:04,842 - [Anne] This is the moment of rebirth upon a new planet. 104 00:06:09,673 --> 00:06:10,717 We're received the call, 105 00:06:13,590 --> 00:06:15,374 and great things will be done. 106 00:06:22,686 --> 00:06:24,905 [dog barking] 107 00:06:26,733 --> 00:06:30,171 - Anne thought that UFOs would come down. 108 00:06:30,258 --> 00:06:32,870 That was one of the reasons for the perfect discipline. 109 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:34,611 We wouldn't question, we would just walk straight 110 00:06:34,741 --> 00:06:36,439 into the UFOs in a file. 111 00:06:39,006 --> 00:06:40,617 When it was all over, we'd come down 112 00:06:40,747 --> 00:06:43,620 and we would tend to what was left of the world. 113 00:06:46,449 --> 00:06:48,146 - [Lex] It was such a bizarre story. 114 00:06:50,453 --> 00:06:53,978 There were allegations of the theft of children at birth 115 00:06:54,108 --> 00:06:56,328 and of the administration 116 00:06:56,459 --> 00:06:59,766 of illicit drugs, LSD, to these children. 117 00:07:02,813 --> 00:07:04,423 As a bit of an inquisitive copper, 118 00:07:04,554 --> 00:07:06,817 of course you want to see for yourself. 119 00:07:09,602 --> 00:07:12,779 - The paranoia amongst The Family was just rife. 120 00:07:12,910 --> 00:07:13,911 [camera clicking] 121 00:07:13,998 --> 00:07:15,042 Everyone thought that everyone 122 00:07:15,173 --> 00:07:16,653 was listening into everything. 123 00:07:18,132 --> 00:07:19,351 I mean, I was petrified of people 124 00:07:19,482 --> 00:07:22,049 standing out the front just looking at the property. 125 00:07:23,094 --> 00:07:27,141 Being stalked, our phones being tapped. 126 00:07:30,928 --> 00:07:32,146 - [Lex] We knew that Anne 127 00:07:32,277 --> 00:07:32,886 and her husband Bill had fled overseas. 128 00:07:35,193 --> 00:07:37,717 But Anne was still directing her followers by telephone. 129 00:07:42,243 --> 00:07:43,941 - Lots of phone calls, to-ing and fro-ing 130 00:07:44,028 --> 00:07:45,508 with Auntie Anne and Uncle Bill. 131 00:07:48,075 --> 00:07:50,251 Oh, she knew she had a lot of enemies. 132 00:07:50,382 --> 00:07:51,905 Auntie Anne was always afraid 133 00:07:52,036 --> 00:07:53,516 that somebody was going to kill her. 134 00:07:55,343 --> 00:07:58,172 She rang and told us to get rid of all the records. 135 00:08:00,610 --> 00:08:02,002 It was chaotic. 136 00:08:02,133 --> 00:08:04,701 It was extremely chaotic. 137 00:08:04,831 --> 00:08:08,139 Uncle Bill's stuff, Auntie Anne's paperwork. 138 00:08:08,269 --> 00:08:12,012 Everything that could be destroyed was destroyed. 139 00:08:12,143 --> 00:08:15,015 [fire crackling] 140 00:08:15,146 --> 00:08:17,757 - [Lex] At that time, Vic Pol was treating this as a, 141 00:08:17,888 --> 00:08:19,280 oh, "this is a welfare issue. 142 00:08:20,368 --> 00:08:22,022 We've got these kids. 143 00:08:22,153 --> 00:08:23,937 Yeah, might have been a bit mistreated and so forth. 144 00:08:24,068 --> 00:08:28,333 But it's really for the Department of Community Services. 145 00:08:28,420 --> 00:08:29,595 It's not really a policing issue." 146 00:08:29,726 --> 00:08:32,032 And I differed in my view 147 00:08:32,163 --> 00:08:34,034 because of the information that I'd gathered. 148 00:08:34,165 --> 00:08:37,124 [slow dramatic music] 149 00:08:45,306 --> 00:08:47,961 Late October, early November of 1989 150 00:08:49,180 --> 00:08:52,096 I got a phone call from the detective chief inspector 151 00:08:52,226 --> 00:08:54,620 in charge of the Victoria Police Drug Squad, said, 152 00:08:54,751 --> 00:08:57,231 "We're going to set up a task force. "Want you to be on it." 153 00:08:57,362 --> 00:08:59,407 And I said, "Yeah, more than happy to be on it." 154 00:08:59,538 --> 00:09:01,235 "We're going to give you a senior sergeant." 155 00:09:01,322 --> 00:09:02,889 I was a sergeant. 156 00:09:03,020 --> 00:09:04,543 "Senior sergeant. 157 00:09:04,674 --> 00:09:06,110 And we'll give you four detectives. 158 00:09:06,197 --> 00:09:09,069 You've got three months, 12 weeks to clean it up." 159 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:10,114 Morning, all. 160 00:09:10,244 --> 00:09:11,071 - Good morning. - Hey, Lex. 161 00:09:11,202 --> 00:09:13,073 - We had folders. 162 00:09:13,204 --> 00:09:14,814 We had my report. 163 00:09:14,945 --> 00:09:16,337 We had a phone book. 164 00:09:16,468 --> 00:09:18,122 I mean, we had one car allocated. 165 00:09:18,252 --> 00:09:20,951 That was the total resourcing for Operation Forest. 166 00:09:25,129 --> 00:09:28,349 I was desperate to meet Anne Hamilton-Byrne from day one. 167 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:31,570 But we didn't know where Anne was. 168 00:09:31,657 --> 00:09:34,094 We were told that Anne was in the UK. 169 00:09:34,225 --> 00:09:37,097 We were told that Anne was in the United States. 170 00:09:37,228 --> 00:09:38,142 We were told that Anne was here and there 171 00:09:38,272 --> 00:09:40,361 but never in Australia. 172 00:09:41,624 --> 00:09:43,756 The closest I could get for now was a TV interview. 173 00:09:45,192 --> 00:09:47,020 - [Reporter] No Aryan race? 174 00:09:47,151 --> 00:09:49,283 - What's this Aryan race business? 175 00:09:49,370 --> 00:09:51,938 You're talking about Germany, aren't you? 176 00:09:52,069 --> 00:09:53,157 - No, we didn't want the children to look like 177 00:09:53,287 --> 00:09:55,986 so-called Nazi children 178 00:09:56,116 --> 00:09:56,987 they've been labelled as. 179 00:09:57,117 --> 00:09:58,379 - No, I wanted them to look 180 00:09:58,510 --> 00:10:00,120 like brothers and sisters though, I must admit this. 181 00:10:00,251 --> 00:10:01,556 I love them. 182 00:10:01,644 --> 00:10:03,820 I love them in their little smocks and jeans, 183 00:10:03,907 --> 00:10:05,256 the long hair in ribbons. 184 00:10:05,386 --> 00:10:06,213 It was beautiful. 185 00:10:06,344 --> 00:10:07,998 It was lovely to see. 186 00:10:08,128 --> 00:10:11,044 - [Reporter] Why did you start to take in the children? 187 00:10:11,175 --> 00:10:14,961 - Over 21 years, 28 young people went through our hands. 188 00:10:16,310 --> 00:10:17,660 - Why did you do that? 189 00:10:19,487 --> 00:10:20,227 - I love children. 190 00:10:21,533 --> 00:10:23,796 [slow music] 191 00:10:26,712 --> 00:10:29,454 - [Lex] Something just did not ring true to me. 192 00:10:29,584 --> 00:10:31,891 There was something driving this woman. 193 00:10:32,022 --> 00:10:35,982 I didn't know what it was, but it was absolutely bizarre. 194 00:10:36,113 --> 00:10:39,594 We needed to dig and dig and dig to find out 195 00:10:39,725 --> 00:10:42,859 who we were dealing with, why did they want these children 196 00:10:42,989 --> 00:10:44,817 What was behind it all? 197 00:10:44,948 --> 00:10:47,124 [rock music] 198 00:10:49,779 --> 00:10:53,043 - [Sarah] In the 50s and 60s in Australia 199 00:10:53,173 --> 00:10:54,784 there was a huge interest amongst upper 200 00:10:54,871 --> 00:10:57,743 and middle class people in alternative spirituality. 201 00:11:02,443 --> 00:11:04,141 - [Anthony] A lot of people in the 60s were trying to find 202 00:11:04,271 --> 00:11:07,492 a truth, somewhere to fit in in the world. 203 00:11:12,018 --> 00:11:14,368 And there was more to life than the 50s and 60s 204 00:11:14,455 --> 00:11:17,023 and the staid plaid go to work, 205 00:11:17,110 --> 00:11:18,938 go to the six o'clock swill, 206 00:11:19,069 --> 00:11:20,418 earn your money, retire, die. 207 00:11:22,202 --> 00:11:24,988 [slow music] 208 00:11:26,076 --> 00:11:27,947 - [ News reporter] Yoga is a philosophy of life. 209 00:11:28,078 --> 00:11:30,210 It began in India centuries ago, 210 00:11:30,341 --> 00:11:32,430 spread through the east, and is now becoming 211 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:35,041 increasingly popular in Australia. 212 00:11:35,128 --> 00:11:36,608 Most of the new devotees are women. 213 00:11:38,349 --> 00:11:41,091 - [Anne] I had been teaching yoga quietly. 214 00:11:41,221 --> 00:11:44,311 I had already started meditation classes 215 00:11:44,442 --> 00:11:46,618 but I came to the conclusion 216 00:11:46,749 --> 00:11:51,144 that I was very, very definitely going to have my school 217 00:11:51,275 --> 00:11:54,408 for the physical, the mental, 218 00:11:54,495 --> 00:11:59,152 and the spiritual control of the body. 219 00:12:00,806 --> 00:12:02,765 And from there I met Raynor Johnson. 220 00:12:04,592 --> 00:12:08,161 [singing in foreign language] 221 00:12:14,907 --> 00:12:16,691 - [News Reader] Today Prime Minister Robert Menzies 222 00:12:16,822 --> 00:12:19,825 led the procession to open a new wing at Queen's College, 223 00:12:19,956 --> 00:12:22,219 named after Dr. Raynor Johnson, 224 00:12:22,349 --> 00:12:24,264 Master of the college for 25 years. 225 00:12:26,136 --> 00:12:30,140 - Raynor was a typical Edwardian English gentleman. 226 00:12:31,619 --> 00:12:34,840 He grew up in the city of Leeds 227 00:12:34,927 --> 00:12:36,842 and was a very clever young boy. 228 00:12:38,670 --> 00:12:41,586 He was a First Class honours graduate from Oxford. 229 00:12:41,716 --> 00:12:43,414 He had worked at the Cavendish Laboratory 230 00:12:43,501 --> 00:12:48,114 at the very front edge of nuclear physics. 231 00:12:49,376 --> 00:12:51,857 The University of Melbourne thought they were getting 232 00:12:51,988 --> 00:12:53,990 a very distinguished physicist. 233 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:56,644 But he really lost interest in physics 234 00:12:56,775 --> 00:12:58,385 by the time he arrived. 235 00:13:00,039 --> 00:13:02,737 Raynor was interested in the world 236 00:13:02,868 --> 00:13:04,609 of spirits and spiritualism. 237 00:13:06,089 --> 00:13:08,352 He believed that he had been chosen 238 00:13:08,482 --> 00:13:12,356 by a college of spirits in the beyond somewhere 239 00:13:12,486 --> 00:13:14,793 because he was a scientist 240 00:13:14,924 --> 00:13:17,840 and would be able to speak to his generation. 241 00:13:19,232 --> 00:13:22,018 [slow music] 242 00:13:22,105 --> 00:13:24,498 - [spiritualist] Nothing is impossible. 243 00:13:28,111 --> 00:13:30,113 - Edwardian Liberals were as a group 244 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:32,855 very interested in Spiritualism. 245 00:13:35,988 --> 00:13:38,904 In many homes, if you had a dinner party, 246 00:13:39,035 --> 00:13:41,602 after you'd had coffee and port 247 00:13:41,733 --> 00:13:43,256 you would go into a living room 248 00:13:43,387 --> 00:13:46,346 and you'd have a Ouija board 249 00:13:46,477 --> 00:13:48,871 and you'd try and connect with spirits beyond. 250 00:13:50,611 --> 00:13:53,136 This was really surprisingly widespread 251 00:13:53,266 --> 00:13:54,789 in the sort of upper middle classes. 252 00:13:58,750 --> 00:14:01,927 I was working very hard on an essay 253 00:14:02,058 --> 00:14:05,191 in the east wing of the College when the master 254 00:14:05,278 --> 00:14:07,454 came into the quadrangle accompanied 255 00:14:07,541 --> 00:14:09,500 by a youngish blond woman. 256 00:14:14,244 --> 00:14:16,115 She was doing something strange 257 00:14:16,246 --> 00:14:19,466 around the entrances and exits from the quadrangle. 258 00:14:22,556 --> 00:14:23,906 That was Anne Hamilton-Byrne. 259 00:14:28,388 --> 00:14:30,913 It's very clear that Raynor would have been flattered 260 00:14:31,043 --> 00:14:32,784 by Anne Hamilton-Byrne. 261 00:14:34,133 --> 00:14:36,396 But Raynor was naive. 262 00:14:37,658 --> 00:14:41,880 I think that she was cultivating or grooming the Master. 263 00:14:46,493 --> 00:14:48,713 - I can't imagine really why he fell 264 00:14:49,975 --> 00:14:52,325 into her trap so quickly. 265 00:14:53,631 --> 00:14:55,763 I remember very clearly the first time that Raynor met Anne. 266 00:14:57,461 --> 00:14:58,941 It was Sunday. 267 00:14:59,071 --> 00:15:01,639 Everybody was in the kitchen except Raynor. 268 00:15:01,769 --> 00:15:03,119 He was in his study, and 269 00:15:03,249 --> 00:15:08,428 Mary was making the gravy for the dinner. 270 00:15:08,559 --> 00:15:11,301 The doorbell went, and I opened the door. 271 00:15:11,431 --> 00:15:12,302 And Anne was there. 272 00:15:14,086 --> 00:15:15,783 Raynor was expecting her, so I brought her in. 273 00:15:17,524 --> 00:15:21,050 In the time it took for Mary to make the gravy, 274 00:15:21,180 --> 00:15:23,008 Raynor came flying out of the study, 275 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:28,144 almost in a flap, very excited, saying, 276 00:15:28,274 --> 00:15:30,015 "Mary, Mary, come quickly. 277 00:15:30,102 --> 00:15:31,669 "She wants to speak to you." 278 00:15:33,279 --> 00:15:35,803 Maybe she batted her eyelashes at him 279 00:15:35,890 --> 00:15:37,980 with her dyed blond hair. 280 00:15:38,110 --> 00:15:40,852 It was as if she'd waved a magic wand over him. 281 00:15:40,939 --> 00:15:43,942 [slow dramatic music] 282 00:15:51,994 --> 00:15:53,517 - [Anne] I had to start it. 283 00:15:53,647 --> 00:15:55,345 That was divine orders. 284 00:15:55,475 --> 00:15:57,260 That was my mission. 285 00:15:57,390 --> 00:15:59,001 That was the divine vision. 286 00:16:05,268 --> 00:16:06,573 - [Raynor Johnson] From this date onwards 287 00:16:06,704 --> 00:16:08,836 there was but little doubt in my mind 288 00:16:08,967 --> 00:16:10,708 that I had met my master. 289 00:16:13,015 --> 00:16:15,626 During the closing months of 1963, 290 00:16:15,756 --> 00:16:20,196 Anne was gathering around her a nucleus of a dozen people 291 00:16:20,326 --> 00:16:24,635 and showing us the foundations of the spiritual path. 292 00:16:24,765 --> 00:16:26,985 From time to time, as the teachers saw 293 00:16:27,072 --> 00:16:28,856 they were ready, she initiated them. 294 00:16:31,990 --> 00:16:36,125 So far the master's plan involves her remaining hidden. 295 00:16:36,255 --> 00:16:40,912 Her work is being done unseen, unheard, and unknown. 296 00:16:46,178 --> 00:16:49,225 - [Tricia] In the early 60s my mother was working in 297 00:16:49,355 --> 00:16:52,663 the tuck shop at Box Hill Technical College. 298 00:16:52,750 --> 00:16:56,319 And one of the ladies there was doing yoga and she suggested 299 00:16:56,449 --> 00:16:57,711 to Mum that she do the same 300 00:16:58,451 --> 00:16:59,800 because she was a little bit overweight. 301 00:17:02,194 --> 00:17:06,851 When Mum first started the yoga, it was wonderful 302 00:17:06,981 --> 00:17:10,333 because she lost weight, she was motivated, 303 00:17:10,420 --> 00:17:11,769 she was getting out of the house. 304 00:17:13,466 --> 00:17:15,903 She told me that what she was doing 305 00:17:16,034 --> 00:17:18,993 was very special, because Anne Hamilton-Byrne 306 00:17:20,299 --> 00:17:22,562 was this Jesus Christ. 307 00:17:25,739 --> 00:17:29,917 There was a lot of talk about ruling the world, 308 00:17:30,004 --> 00:17:32,703 and having a perfect world, 309 00:17:32,833 --> 00:17:36,054 and how everybody that didn't fit in 310 00:17:36,185 --> 00:17:40,885 to that little group weren't going to survive. 311 00:17:41,015 --> 00:17:43,627 [people talking] 312 00:17:46,412 --> 00:17:47,718 - We didn't think of ourselves as a cult. 313 00:17:47,848 --> 00:17:49,633 I mean, that would have been ridiculous. 314 00:17:49,763 --> 00:17:54,333 This was a very, very gradual immersion in new values. 315 00:17:56,030 --> 00:17:58,642 It wasn't just random happy hippies. 316 00:18:00,470 --> 00:18:05,039 It was Australian people who were handpicked, 317 00:18:06,084 --> 00:18:10,393 genuinely professional, successful people 318 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:12,003 that you might live next door to. 319 00:18:15,485 --> 00:18:16,399 And it was all secret. 320 00:18:19,663 --> 00:18:20,751 - [Dave] You've got to remember, 321 00:18:20,881 --> 00:18:22,144 this woman had phenomenal presence. 322 00:18:24,102 --> 00:18:27,410 - [Fran] In ancient times we hear about enchantresses 323 00:18:27,540 --> 00:18:30,978 who could enslave people just by a glance. 324 00:18:31,109 --> 00:18:33,764 There was a glamour about Anne that meant 325 00:18:33,851 --> 00:18:36,767 that all the men were besotted. 326 00:18:36,897 --> 00:18:40,292 Bill was totally beglamoured, just beglamoured. 327 00:18:40,423 --> 00:18:42,816 - [Roland] She's strong, she's powerful. 328 00:18:42,947 --> 00:18:45,254 - [Fran] Entrancing, beautiful, loving. 329 00:18:47,430 --> 00:18:50,215 - I was looking for a mother figure 330 00:18:50,346 --> 00:18:55,002 because I didn't have much of a one growing up. 331 00:18:56,265 --> 00:19:01,139 Anne personified this sort of idealised mother figure, 332 00:19:02,184 --> 00:19:04,011 the perfect mother, or the great mother. 333 00:19:05,274 --> 00:19:09,756 I had this yearning to belong to Anne's group of people. 334 00:19:13,151 --> 00:19:16,023 If I could get close to her 335 00:19:16,937 --> 00:19:19,592 I would have a place where I belonged. 336 00:19:22,726 --> 00:19:26,033 - They would meet regularly at a hall 337 00:19:26,164 --> 00:19:29,428 in Ferny Creek on a five acre property. 338 00:19:29,515 --> 00:19:30,864 [slow music] 339 00:19:30,995 --> 00:19:34,694 And in its heyday in the late 60s, early 70s 340 00:19:35,956 --> 00:19:39,264 there were hundreds of people that would turn up there, 341 00:19:39,351 --> 00:19:42,876 including people of high standing in the community. 342 00:19:48,186 --> 00:19:49,448 - We waited, and we meditated, 343 00:19:49,579 --> 00:19:51,233 and we waited, and we meditated. 344 00:19:51,363 --> 00:19:52,799 And then eventually Anne would come in 345 00:19:52,886 --> 00:19:53,757 from the back of the hall. 346 00:19:53,887 --> 00:19:54,845 - [Anne] To thy last supper. 347 00:19:57,108 --> 00:19:58,936 - When she spoke, you listened. 348 00:19:59,066 --> 00:20:00,546 And what came out of her mouth 349 00:20:00,677 --> 00:20:03,245 was very much worth listening to, believe me. 350 00:20:03,375 --> 00:20:05,159 - [Anne] For neither have I betrayed any secrets 351 00:20:05,290 --> 00:20:08,989 to thine enemies, nor have I given thee the kiss of Judas. 352 00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:11,688 But like a thief I pray unto thee-- 353 00:20:11,818 --> 00:20:15,387 - Right the way through my entire 32 years with the Lodge, 354 00:20:15,518 --> 00:20:18,042 I was in the sound room recording 355 00:20:18,172 --> 00:20:21,175 every single lecture, speech. 356 00:20:21,263 --> 00:20:24,091 Every word that Anne uttered went on tape. 357 00:20:24,222 --> 00:20:28,008 - She taught this mishmash of Eastern religions 358 00:20:28,139 --> 00:20:30,750 involving an endless wheel 359 00:20:30,837 --> 00:20:32,926 of life and death and reincarnation, 360 00:20:33,057 --> 00:20:35,755 and the bad karma builds up and up and up. 361 00:20:35,886 --> 00:20:38,584 And it's a bit like a toxic debt of a nation. 362 00:20:38,715 --> 00:20:40,543 It's actually so big you can never pay it off. 363 00:20:40,673 --> 00:20:43,067 So you have to have somebody to cancel it out for you. 364 00:20:43,197 --> 00:20:46,549 And she cancels all of your karma 365 00:20:46,679 --> 00:20:47,985 at the initiation ceremony. 366 00:20:50,379 --> 00:20:52,598 So the only karma you've got left to work out 367 00:20:52,729 --> 00:20:56,428 is what you were born to work out in this life. 368 00:20:56,515 --> 00:20:57,951 - [Roland] We were brought up that 369 00:20:58,082 --> 00:21:00,606 we've had many millions of lives. 370 00:21:00,737 --> 00:21:02,260 And Auntie Anne promised us that this 371 00:21:02,391 --> 00:21:05,481 was our last life if we stood by her. 372 00:21:08,527 --> 00:21:11,922 - Only one rule, do absolutely everything she tells ya. 373 00:21:12,052 --> 00:21:14,359 And that might range from what to eat, 374 00:21:14,446 --> 00:21:17,536 what to wear, what to think, who to marry, 375 00:21:17,667 --> 00:21:20,234 who to not marry, everything. 376 00:21:20,365 --> 00:21:22,062 Total obedience. 377 00:21:22,149 --> 00:21:24,891 [slow dramatic music] 378 00:21:30,810 --> 00:21:33,596 - [ Police Interviewer] All right, it's 4:50. 379 00:21:37,295 --> 00:21:37,991 - 4.53. 380 00:21:39,558 --> 00:21:41,865 - 4.53 on Wednesday the 1st 1990. 381 00:21:44,476 --> 00:21:45,695 - And weren't we taping? 382 00:21:46,870 --> 00:21:47,827 - Mm-hm. 383 00:21:47,958 --> 00:21:48,480 - Where is it? 384 00:21:48,567 --> 00:21:50,830 - [laughs] Here. 385 00:21:50,961 --> 00:21:52,571 - Oh, right. 386 00:21:52,702 --> 00:21:55,705 - It's difficult with dates because our life was sort of, 387 00:21:55,835 --> 00:21:59,186 we were brought up in such a stultifying daily routine. 388 00:21:59,317 --> 00:22:00,231 Every day was the same. 389 00:22:00,362 --> 00:22:01,232 Every weekend was the same. 390 00:22:01,363 --> 00:22:03,147 - By the colours of our aura, 391 00:22:03,234 --> 00:22:05,845 she could tell what we were feeling, 392 00:22:05,976 --> 00:22:08,979 or supposedly what we were feeling or thinking. 393 00:22:09,109 --> 00:22:10,937 - I remember sitting down with the children 394 00:22:11,068 --> 00:22:13,026 in the early days and I said, 395 00:22:13,157 --> 00:22:18,205 "I can't promise you that we will arrest someone, 396 00:22:19,293 --> 00:22:22,209 "or charge someone, or get a conviction." 397 00:22:22,340 --> 00:22:26,170 But I said that we will do our absolute best. 398 00:22:26,300 --> 00:22:28,651 [slow music] 399 00:22:38,182 --> 00:22:38,704 - [Roland] My first memory is Mum was taking me 400 00:22:38,835 --> 00:22:39,401 up to Eildon. 401 00:22:43,361 --> 00:22:45,407 And I knew I was going to live up there. 402 00:22:46,712 --> 00:22:47,409 I would have been only about maybe two, two and a half. 403 00:22:47,539 --> 00:22:48,410 And I remember saying, 404 00:22:51,543 --> 00:22:53,937 "Oh, Mum, look at all the wattle trees." 405 00:22:54,067 --> 00:22:54,764 It was beautiful. 406 00:22:57,375 --> 00:22:59,812 That's my first memory of the actual sect, 407 00:23:01,335 --> 00:23:03,337 being up with all the other kids. 408 00:23:06,079 --> 00:23:07,820 - As far as we knew, we were all 409 00:23:07,951 --> 00:23:11,433 Anne Hamilton-Byrne's children, well 14 of us were. 410 00:23:11,563 --> 00:23:13,130 - Growing up it was Anne and it was Bill. 411 00:23:13,260 --> 00:23:14,131 They were Mum and Dad. 412 00:23:15,654 --> 00:23:17,526 And then there was foster kids. 413 00:23:19,092 --> 00:23:21,007 They were kids of other sect members 414 00:23:22,531 --> 00:23:24,054 that would either come up on weekends 415 00:23:24,184 --> 00:23:26,360 or stay there for stints of a couple of years. 416 00:23:29,276 --> 00:23:31,627 At its heyday, or I should say the greatest amount of kids 417 00:23:31,757 --> 00:23:33,324 at any given stage was 28. 418 00:23:35,152 --> 00:23:37,241 - We all had blonded bleached hair. 419 00:23:37,371 --> 00:23:38,111 Not all of us. 420 00:23:38,242 --> 00:23:40,026 Some had red hair. 421 00:23:40,157 --> 00:23:42,638 Because Auntie Anne was actually naturally red-headed. 422 00:23:44,901 --> 00:23:49,645 Very, very royal Von Trapp sort of clothes. 423 00:23:50,515 --> 00:23:53,039 Your velvets, your smart shoes, 424 00:23:53,126 --> 00:23:56,956 and everything had to be polished and looking the same. 425 00:23:58,784 --> 00:24:01,439 And that was really to implant in us 426 00:24:01,570 --> 00:24:04,094 that we're all brothers and sisters. 427 00:24:05,269 --> 00:24:08,011 - The Aunties were the people who looked after us. 428 00:24:08,141 --> 00:24:09,926 When the Aunties knew that we were going for walks 429 00:24:10,013 --> 00:24:12,015 we were always accompanied by them. 430 00:24:12,102 --> 00:24:15,018 There must have been that fear that we would run away. 431 00:24:15,148 --> 00:24:18,804 We'd walk around and we'd peer into people's houses, 432 00:24:18,935 --> 00:24:22,112 wondered if they had the same food as we did. 433 00:24:24,027 --> 00:24:26,159 And if not, what was that food that they were eating? 434 00:24:30,903 --> 00:24:32,731 - You weren't encouraged to socialise 435 00:24:32,862 --> 00:24:33,906 or interact with other people. 436 00:24:34,037 --> 00:24:38,520 In fact, it was us and them. 437 00:24:38,607 --> 00:24:41,435 So we were separate from the rest of the world. 438 00:24:41,566 --> 00:24:43,873 [slow music] 439 00:24:48,834 --> 00:24:51,228 - [Lex] We received information that Bill Hamilton-Byrne 440 00:24:51,315 --> 00:24:55,798 had been seen in Langton Green, a small village in Kent 441 00:24:55,928 --> 00:24:57,495 where the cult owned a large property. 442 00:25:01,412 --> 00:25:03,849 - With the sect, every so often they hit the news. 443 00:25:03,980 --> 00:25:05,155 And when the hit the news in Australia, 444 00:25:05,285 --> 00:25:06,765 they pick up sticks and move to England. 445 00:25:08,506 --> 00:25:09,812 Langton Green is a big farm 446 00:25:09,942 --> 00:25:11,944 in the stockbroker's belt in England, 447 00:25:12,075 --> 00:25:14,991 10 acres, a 16th century house. 448 00:25:16,296 --> 00:25:17,994 And it's got tunnels going under right down to Brighton. 449 00:25:18,124 --> 00:25:19,778 Kings escaped through there, whatever. 450 00:25:19,865 --> 00:25:21,780 All sorts of history in that place. 451 00:25:21,911 --> 00:25:24,740 - [Bill] Show them this side of the house here, honey. 452 00:25:24,870 --> 00:25:27,438 Along here the little window up at the top. 453 00:25:27,569 --> 00:25:31,398 - [Anne] Queen Elizabeth..before Queen Elizabeth. 454 00:25:31,529 --> 00:25:33,052 There's our dining room window open. 455 00:25:33,183 --> 00:25:34,576 - [Bill] I believe it goes back to 15th century. 456 00:25:34,663 --> 00:25:36,012 - [Anne] Yes. 457 00:25:36,142 --> 00:25:37,970 - Big house, but it had been added on. 458 00:25:38,101 --> 00:25:39,668 And one section was for Anne. 459 00:25:39,798 --> 00:25:42,279 - [laughs] Look. 460 00:25:43,759 --> 00:25:45,412 [Bill laughing] 461 00:25:45,543 --> 00:25:47,327 Turn around, Daddy. 462 00:25:47,458 --> 00:25:48,285 - Who me? 463 00:25:48,415 --> 00:25:49,591 - [Anne] Say something. 464 00:25:49,721 --> 00:25:50,983 - Mm, love you, darling. 465 00:25:51,114 --> 00:25:52,202 - [Anne] Love you to the children. 466 00:25:52,332 --> 00:25:53,595 - To the children. 467 00:25:53,682 --> 00:25:54,378 - [Anne] You love them, don't you, Daddy? 468 00:25:54,508 --> 00:25:56,032 - I do love them, darling, I do. 469 00:25:56,162 --> 00:25:57,424 - [Anne] And I love you, darling. 470 00:25:57,555 --> 00:25:58,382 - Love you, Annie. 471 00:25:58,512 --> 00:26:00,819 [slow music] 472 00:26:03,300 --> 00:26:06,259 - When we were children they would travel a lot overseas 473 00:26:06,390 --> 00:26:10,133 between Australia, America, and England. 474 00:26:11,308 --> 00:26:13,310 So they weren't always at home with us at Eildon. 475 00:26:15,355 --> 00:26:17,009 - We'd be told they'd be overseas, 476 00:26:17,140 --> 00:26:19,098 so we thought they were over the other side of the lake. 477 00:26:19,229 --> 00:26:21,318 And we'd rock ourselves to sleep at night 478 00:26:21,448 --> 00:26:22,972 calling out, "Mummy, Daddy," 479 00:26:23,102 --> 00:26:25,322 thinking that they were just over the lake. 480 00:26:27,585 --> 00:26:30,675 - When Mum and Dad came back from England or overseas 481 00:26:30,806 --> 00:26:33,112 was generally the time that they used to do filming, 482 00:26:33,243 --> 00:26:34,984 'cause of course we were all very excited 483 00:26:35,114 --> 00:26:37,073 and all very happy to see them. 484 00:26:38,161 --> 00:26:40,816 - I think we put on quite a good performance. 485 00:26:42,208 --> 00:26:45,603 It's a very a neat piece of propaganda, the movie business. 486 00:26:45,734 --> 00:26:48,780 I'm sure it was designed to show people 487 00:26:48,911 --> 00:26:52,131 who Anne wanted to get into the cult, 488 00:26:52,262 --> 00:26:53,829 why wouldn't you want to be a part of this? 489 00:26:53,916 --> 00:26:54,699 It looks idyllic. 490 00:26:58,268 --> 00:27:01,750 You starve the kids, but you want them all for film, 491 00:27:01,837 --> 00:27:03,229 so anyway, you just tell them 492 00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:04,840 that they're going to have some chocolate or something 493 00:27:04,970 --> 00:27:07,190 and then you've got a nice happy-looking family. 494 00:27:11,194 --> 00:27:13,892 - Very few adult members of the sect 495 00:27:14,023 --> 00:27:16,068 really knew what was happening to those children. 496 00:27:16,199 --> 00:27:18,941 They were kept in isolation even from the sect. 497 00:27:19,071 --> 00:27:22,031 There were special aunties and uncles 498 00:27:22,118 --> 00:27:25,295 who Anne entrusted to raise her children. 499 00:27:25,425 --> 00:27:27,732 But the others only saw them occasionally 500 00:27:27,863 --> 00:27:31,562 when they'd go to the hall and perform for the sect. 501 00:27:31,693 --> 00:27:33,695 And then they'd be shunted off again in buses, 502 00:27:33,825 --> 00:27:35,566 but back to Eildon. 503 00:27:35,697 --> 00:27:38,395 [children singing] 504 00:27:43,182 --> 00:27:45,837 - The main Aunties were Trish and Aunt Elizabeth. 505 00:27:45,968 --> 00:27:48,013 And they used to come up every fortnight 506 00:27:48,144 --> 00:27:50,929 and look after us for two weeks on, two weeks off. 507 00:27:51,060 --> 00:27:53,279 They starved us, they beat us, 508 00:27:54,367 --> 00:27:56,805 they did all sorts of horrible things to us. 509 00:27:56,892 --> 00:28:01,418 [slow music] [insects chirping] 510 00:28:01,548 --> 00:28:04,943 - [Ben] Around 5:30 in the morning we would be woken up. 511 00:28:05,030 --> 00:28:07,598 There would be hatha yoga meditation. 512 00:28:07,729 --> 00:28:09,774 - [Anouree] And then set up the boys' room for school 513 00:28:09,905 --> 00:28:10,601 - [Ben] Beds would be rolled away. 514 00:28:10,732 --> 00:28:12,429 Out would come the school books. 515 00:28:12,559 --> 00:28:14,387 There were trestle tables, all the chairs, 516 00:28:14,518 --> 00:28:15,954 with a blackboard at the end, seven days a week. 517 00:28:16,085 --> 00:28:17,521 [mid-temple music] 518 00:28:17,651 --> 00:28:18,740 - [Anouree] A plate of vegetables for lunch, 519 00:28:18,827 --> 00:28:20,393 a plate of vegetables for dinner. 520 00:28:20,524 --> 00:28:22,961 - With all of the vitamins were laid out. 521 00:28:23,092 --> 00:28:24,833 School finished four o'clock. 522 00:28:24,963 --> 00:28:27,966 There were showers, yoga, meditation, 523 00:28:28,097 --> 00:28:32,579 dinner, and then there was homework, reading, bed. 524 00:28:33,842 --> 00:28:37,062 And that pretty much repeated 52 weeks in the year. 525 00:28:37,193 --> 00:28:38,934 - From about 1980 Anne increased the dosage 526 00:28:39,064 --> 00:28:41,806 and types of drugs we were taking. 527 00:28:41,937 --> 00:28:43,939 I was given Valium, half a tablet three times a day. 528 00:28:44,069 --> 00:28:46,245 - Anatensol and Tegretol, 529 00:28:46,376 --> 00:28:50,902 Mogadon and Valium every single day, morning and night. 530 00:28:51,033 --> 00:28:54,210 - I do remember of one occasion where I had LSD 531 00:28:54,340 --> 00:28:56,690 when I was about eight or nine. 532 00:28:56,778 --> 00:28:59,606 I do not remember actually being administered it. 533 00:28:59,737 --> 00:29:02,958 But I certainly remember the effects of it. 534 00:29:03,088 --> 00:29:05,656 - You were punished most days in some way, 535 00:29:05,787 --> 00:29:08,180 whether it was lines or missing food, 536 00:29:08,311 --> 00:29:10,008 or three days was really bad, 537 00:29:10,139 --> 00:29:12,097 if you went without food for three days. 538 00:29:12,184 --> 00:29:14,970 - The longest I ever went without food was for a week. 539 00:29:16,058 --> 00:29:18,582 - The denial of food was a very large component 540 00:29:18,712 --> 00:29:22,281 of control for Anne. 541 00:29:22,412 --> 00:29:25,110 It's better to keep your victims weak 542 00:29:25,241 --> 00:29:27,591 so that they have less ability to fight back. 543 00:29:30,376 --> 00:29:33,249 - The police doctor told me the youngest one 544 00:29:33,379 --> 00:29:36,382 suffered from psychosocial dwarfism. 545 00:29:37,601 --> 00:29:41,735 Because she lived in a harsh, uncaring environment, 546 00:29:41,823 --> 00:29:45,043 her growth hormones as a young child were never released. 547 00:29:46,088 --> 00:29:48,177 And when they took the children out in the raid 548 00:29:48,307 --> 00:29:53,138 in August '87, and they removed them from the sect, 549 00:29:53,965 --> 00:29:55,358 I think it was within a week or two 550 00:29:55,488 --> 00:29:56,533 she grew two centimetres. 551 00:29:59,144 --> 00:30:01,407 To me that was clear evidence 552 00:30:01,538 --> 00:30:03,061 that the children had been maltreated. 553 00:30:25,779 --> 00:30:28,260 One of our tasks was to visit Lake Eildon, 554 00:30:28,347 --> 00:30:30,915 where the children had been held in captivity, 555 00:30:31,002 --> 00:30:31,873 to gather evidence. 556 00:30:34,963 --> 00:30:36,094 It was eerie. 557 00:30:37,139 --> 00:30:40,577 This was where some of the worst crimes 558 00:30:40,707 --> 00:30:43,754 were committed, allegedly, against the children. 559 00:30:46,017 --> 00:30:48,541 I saw where the children were secreted under the house 560 00:30:48,672 --> 00:30:51,414 when those evil police officers came, 561 00:30:52,719 --> 00:30:56,549 who the children were told would kill you if they saw you. 562 00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:57,420 [slow music] 563 00:30:57,507 --> 00:31:00,031 [camera clicking] 564 00:31:26,101 --> 00:31:30,583 Anne had said at one stage that there had been 28 children. 565 00:31:30,670 --> 00:31:34,848 We knew of 14 or 15, which in my calculations 566 00:31:34,979 --> 00:31:37,982 meant there was around 13, 14 children that, who were they? 567 00:31:48,471 --> 00:31:52,954 Bizarre as it sounds, we needed to exclude any possibility 568 00:31:55,217 --> 00:31:56,783 that there was anything other than dogs 569 00:31:56,914 --> 00:31:57,784 buried in those graves. 570 00:32:05,096 --> 00:32:06,924 Thank goodness we were able to do that. 571 00:32:13,148 --> 00:32:16,542 It was a real interesting raid 'cause it actually gave us 572 00:32:16,673 --> 00:32:18,762 the intelligence and confirmed 573 00:32:18,849 --> 00:32:20,633 what we had been told by the children. 574 00:32:35,518 --> 00:32:39,174 - Eildon itself was very regimented, 575 00:32:39,304 --> 00:32:41,002 but at the same time very unpredictable. 576 00:32:45,310 --> 00:32:47,008 The rules could change and you didn't know 577 00:32:47,138 --> 00:32:48,792 they'd changed until you'd broken them. 578 00:32:51,751 --> 00:32:53,188 It made it a lot more dangerous. 579 00:32:53,318 --> 00:32:55,277 You can't save yourself if you don't know 580 00:32:55,407 --> 00:32:57,061 what you're going to get into trouble for. 581 00:32:58,758 --> 00:33:00,847 One of the rules is don't wet your bed. 582 00:33:00,978 --> 00:33:02,327 Of course, that night I wet my bed. 583 00:33:02,414 --> 00:33:03,850 In the morning I got a belting. 584 00:33:06,157 --> 00:33:09,987 The Auntie would come in and she'd rip the sheets back. 585 00:33:10,118 --> 00:33:12,076 And if it was wet, then that was you 586 00:33:12,207 --> 00:33:13,469 in the bathroom having a belting. 587 00:33:13,599 --> 00:33:15,427 And when it wasn't you, it was the others. 588 00:33:15,558 --> 00:33:17,908 So there were three or four beltings in the morning, 589 00:33:18,039 --> 00:33:19,779 and it's quite a distressing way to wake up. 590 00:33:21,694 --> 00:33:23,827 [slow music] 591 00:33:28,223 --> 00:33:31,574 - [Ben] We used to call the place, a concentration camp. 592 00:33:31,704 --> 00:33:33,837 And you'd just decide how you're going to play the system 593 00:33:33,924 --> 00:33:35,099 to get what you need to survive. 594 00:33:38,102 --> 00:33:38,972 - [Anouree] If Anne could team us up 595 00:33:39,103 --> 00:33:40,278 and get us against each other, 596 00:33:40,409 --> 00:33:42,063 that was going to work very well for her. 597 00:33:42,193 --> 00:33:44,021 - [Ben] If relationships were built among us, 598 00:33:44,152 --> 00:33:45,457 she would purposely split that up. 599 00:33:46,980 --> 00:33:48,025 - [Sarah] A lot of us kids believed 600 00:33:48,156 --> 00:33:50,375 that she could read our thoughts. 601 00:33:50,506 --> 00:33:51,724 - [Leeanne] If someone did something wrong 602 00:33:51,855 --> 00:33:54,901 and didn't own up, everybody got punished. 603 00:33:55,032 --> 00:33:56,251 - [Ben] And so if I found out who did it, 604 00:33:56,381 --> 00:33:57,252 I would tell on them. 605 00:33:59,167 --> 00:34:00,559 You become very unpopular with that. 606 00:34:03,258 --> 00:34:04,781 No one likes the class snitch. 607 00:34:11,396 --> 00:34:13,659 - I kept to myself. 608 00:34:13,746 --> 00:34:15,008 Sometimes I'd hide under my bed. 609 00:34:16,967 --> 00:34:19,404 That was my place to be, I would just sit on my bed 610 00:34:19,535 --> 00:34:21,885 frozen as a statue, just staring out the window. 611 00:34:23,278 --> 00:34:24,366 I just shut down. 612 00:34:26,194 --> 00:34:26,759 Which is why I uselessly dreamed of going to Mars 613 00:34:26,846 --> 00:34:27,456 and living there. 614 00:34:32,156 --> 00:34:36,769 There were no humans, just little creatures 615 00:34:36,900 --> 00:34:40,991 that would be getting about in an industrial way, 616 00:34:41,122 --> 00:34:43,167 making their civilization work. 617 00:34:52,045 --> 00:34:53,438 - Not all the time, but just occasionally, 618 00:34:53,525 --> 00:34:56,615 I'd trap my cat in my room. 619 00:34:56,702 --> 00:34:58,791 And I used to throw her around. 620 00:35:01,316 --> 00:35:03,883 And then that anger would subside 621 00:35:05,058 --> 00:35:07,844 and I'd hold her, and I'd rock, 622 00:35:07,974 --> 00:35:10,368 and I was sobbing, and "I'm sorry," and "I'm sorry." 623 00:35:10,455 --> 00:35:13,763 And no one ever heard. 624 00:35:13,893 --> 00:35:15,112 No one ever came and said, "Are you okay? 625 00:35:15,243 --> 00:35:15,982 "What's going on? 626 00:35:16,113 --> 00:35:16,940 "Why are you doing this?" 627 00:35:18,898 --> 00:35:21,727 And it wasn't that I wanted to hurt the cat. 628 00:35:21,858 --> 00:35:23,076 I wasn't sitting there going, 629 00:35:23,207 --> 00:35:23,816 "Ooh, I'm going to hurt the cat." 630 00:35:23,947 --> 00:35:25,166 It just exploded. 631 00:35:33,261 --> 00:35:36,133 - I was actually one of the naughtier ones. 632 00:35:36,264 --> 00:35:37,700 I think that's probably one of the reasons 633 00:35:37,830 --> 00:35:40,877 why Uncle Bill told me to leave. 634 00:35:42,008 --> 00:35:43,967 And I was just devastated. 635 00:35:44,968 --> 00:35:45,925 They were my family. 636 00:35:53,672 --> 00:35:55,021 [slow dramatic music] 637 00:35:55,108 --> 00:35:56,980 I never felt like I was a part of any 638 00:35:57,110 --> 00:35:59,156 of the groups, except for Eildon. 639 00:36:03,291 --> 00:36:05,423 I was getting a little bit rebellious, I think. 640 00:36:08,165 --> 00:36:11,342 For example, cutting people's car brakes. 641 00:36:11,473 --> 00:36:12,865 [match striking] 642 00:36:12,996 --> 00:36:16,260 Then I started trying to burn down Dad's house 643 00:36:16,391 --> 00:36:20,046 and trying to burn down the Sherbrooke Forest. 644 00:36:20,133 --> 00:36:24,877 And still today I really cannot 645 00:36:26,357 --> 00:36:28,229 answer the question why I did that. 646 00:36:29,578 --> 00:36:31,797 The only thing I can think of is that I was crying for help. 647 00:36:35,671 --> 00:36:39,892 - Mum was spending an awful lot of time up in Ferny Creek. 648 00:36:40,023 --> 00:36:42,330 She said she was going to meetings, and yoga, 649 00:36:42,417 --> 00:36:43,766 and all this sort of thing. 650 00:36:43,896 --> 00:36:47,160 And we really didn't know what was happening. 651 00:36:49,032 --> 00:36:52,165 I don't know whether because Dad worked long hours 652 00:36:52,296 --> 00:36:55,473 and he was away a lot whether Mum just got sick and tired 653 00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:57,345 of being home with the children. 654 00:37:00,086 --> 00:37:04,352 Dad went up to Ferny Creek quite a few times. 655 00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:07,224 He used to go up and there and sit and watch 656 00:37:07,355 --> 00:37:09,792 and see if he could sort of see anything going on. 657 00:37:16,189 --> 00:37:18,279 He said the husbands that were up there 658 00:37:19,454 --> 00:37:21,760 were really, really angry. 659 00:37:21,891 --> 00:37:23,849 [men yelling] 660 00:37:23,936 --> 00:37:25,547 Some of them had placards, 661 00:37:25,677 --> 00:37:27,505 things about Anne breaking up families. 662 00:37:32,249 --> 00:37:34,164 Dad was angry, but he was just a bit frightened 663 00:37:34,295 --> 00:37:36,993 that it might come to blows. 664 00:37:39,952 --> 00:37:41,214 It wasn't long after that 665 00:37:41,345 --> 00:37:43,478 that Mum shifted out completely. 666 00:37:45,262 --> 00:37:47,438 Dad had to sell the house 667 00:37:47,569 --> 00:37:52,356 and Mum took her money and gave it to the cult. 668 00:37:52,487 --> 00:37:54,793 And then Dad had to shift back in with his mother 669 00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:58,144 because he didn't have enough money to buy another house. 670 00:38:00,103 --> 00:38:01,104 He was just a broken man. 671 00:38:11,375 --> 00:38:15,205 - I was delving back into historical matters 672 00:38:15,336 --> 00:38:20,123 and I came across information that there had been 673 00:38:21,037 --> 00:38:22,255 a television programme put together 674 00:38:22,386 --> 00:38:24,736 by a journalist by the name of Phil De Montignie. 675 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:38,750 - A very few people would talk. 676 00:38:38,881 --> 00:38:41,797 All the information that I got came from people 677 00:38:41,927 --> 00:38:47,019 who had left the, we called it a cult, had left the cult. 678 00:38:48,107 --> 00:38:51,807 The survivors told me their endeavours to leave 679 00:38:51,937 --> 00:38:53,852 were met with being forcibly being taken 680 00:38:53,983 --> 00:38:56,594 to Newhaven Hospital and given shock treatment, 681 00:38:58,030 --> 00:39:00,032 which was not necessary. 682 00:39:00,163 --> 00:39:01,599 The only thing that was wrong with them 683 00:39:01,730 --> 00:39:03,079 was that they were beginning 684 00:39:03,166 --> 00:39:06,343 not to believe in The Family and wanting to leave it. 685 00:39:09,172 --> 00:39:11,870 They referred to things like brainwashing, 686 00:39:12,001 --> 00:39:14,046 children who didn't know who their parents were. 687 00:39:16,092 --> 00:39:17,789 They seemed to all be locked away. 688 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:19,791 You just never got to the kids. 689 00:39:19,922 --> 00:39:22,011 There's also been some concern about children, 690 00:39:22,141 --> 00:39:23,578 baby farm is an expression-- 691 00:39:23,708 --> 00:39:25,841 - Well that's just ridiculous. 692 00:39:25,928 --> 00:39:29,410 I think that kind of nasty allegation, 693 00:39:29,540 --> 00:39:31,455 if somebody will come out with it 694 00:39:31,586 --> 00:39:32,978 we'll take action against them. 695 00:39:34,806 --> 00:39:37,766 - It's been suggested that drugs are used within your group. 696 00:39:37,896 --> 00:39:39,158 Can you seen any basis for this? 697 00:39:39,245 --> 00:39:41,857 - Well this of course, I deny absolutely. 698 00:39:41,987 --> 00:39:44,207 We are respectable citizens, 699 00:39:44,294 --> 00:39:46,252 as I've tried to indicate to you. 700 00:39:46,383 --> 00:39:47,689 [slow music] 701 00:39:47,819 --> 00:39:49,212 - After it went to air, The Family 702 00:39:49,342 --> 00:39:51,780 approached Reg Ansett with a complaint. 703 00:40:00,919 --> 00:40:04,009 Reg used to come every day, spend half an hour 704 00:40:04,096 --> 00:40:04,575 with the Board, and then buzz off. 705 00:40:07,535 --> 00:40:10,886 Well on this particular day I got hauled in to talk to him. 706 00:40:13,105 --> 00:40:14,846 I got told in no uncertain terms 707 00:40:14,977 --> 00:40:16,718 that I had to do a follow up 708 00:40:16,848 --> 00:40:18,459 and it had to be a friendly one. 709 00:40:21,679 --> 00:40:24,073 We felt a strong enough case was there 710 00:40:24,203 --> 00:40:26,815 for an investigation to do with child abuse. 711 00:40:31,123 --> 00:40:33,648 We took all of our material to Dick Hamer, 712 00:40:33,778 --> 00:40:35,911 who was the premier at the time. 713 00:40:36,041 --> 00:40:40,524 Because the judiciary were involved in The Family, 714 00:40:40,611 --> 00:40:42,526 I got the feeling that if I took it to the police 715 00:40:42,657 --> 00:40:46,182 it would just disappear, nothing would happen. 716 00:40:46,922 --> 00:40:48,097 So we took it to the Premier, 717 00:40:48,184 --> 00:40:50,273 and in fact that's what happened, nothing. 718 00:40:50,403 --> 00:40:52,841 It got swept under the carpet. 719 00:40:52,928 --> 00:40:55,539 - There's no doubt that there were tentacles 720 00:40:55,670 --> 00:40:58,411 reaching sort of right to the top. 721 00:41:01,284 --> 00:41:06,332 - In 1956, 0.05% of the Australian population 722 00:41:07,377 --> 00:41:11,773 were at or had even been to a university. 723 00:41:11,903 --> 00:41:14,166 And you knew that the people that were in college with you 724 00:41:14,253 --> 00:41:19,171 were going to become judges and specialist medical people. 725 00:41:20,129 --> 00:41:23,045 Many very distinguished Australians 726 00:41:23,132 --> 00:41:25,743 had spent their early 20s in Queen's College, 727 00:41:25,874 --> 00:41:27,963 and he was their Master. 728 00:41:28,093 --> 00:41:30,574 [slow music] 729 00:41:30,705 --> 00:41:34,491 Raynor was involved in a club in downtown Melbourne, 730 00:41:34,578 --> 00:41:37,015 a club that he was introduced to 731 00:41:37,102 --> 00:41:40,976 by David Syme from The Age newspaper. 732 00:41:41,106 --> 00:41:44,327 Robert Menzies was a member of the same club. 733 00:41:45,546 --> 00:41:48,026 Ansett was probably connected. 734 00:41:49,114 --> 00:41:52,901 It was part of the group that led to the formation 735 00:41:53,031 --> 00:41:54,772 of the Liberal Party of Australia. 736 00:41:58,950 --> 00:42:01,126 - They definitely did have friends in high places. 737 00:42:01,257 --> 00:42:03,346 I mean, when you start with the Queen's College Master, 738 00:42:03,476 --> 00:42:06,523 Raynor Johnson, being first devotee. 739 00:42:06,654 --> 00:42:09,352 When you look at some of the associations 740 00:42:09,482 --> 00:42:11,049 with the highest offices in the state. 741 00:42:12,660 --> 00:42:15,358 Now how influential those people were 742 00:42:15,488 --> 00:42:17,055 to making sure these investigations 743 00:42:17,142 --> 00:42:20,189 never went too far, I can't answer. 744 00:42:20,276 --> 00:42:21,756 But you've always got to wonder. 745 00:42:22,844 --> 00:42:25,324 [bell ringing] 746 00:42:25,455 --> 00:42:27,762 - [Female Announcer] Today in the chapel at Queen's College, 747 00:42:27,892 --> 00:42:30,416 former University of Melbourne medical student, 748 00:42:30,503 --> 00:42:33,071 Dr. Howard Whitaker married Elizabeth Jean, 749 00:42:33,202 --> 00:42:36,074 younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs D. Black-- 750 00:42:36,205 --> 00:42:39,251 - My father, Howard Whitaker, wanted to find somebody 751 00:42:39,382 --> 00:42:42,559 who was a medium who would help him 752 00:42:42,690 --> 00:42:45,997 use LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs 753 00:42:46,128 --> 00:42:49,958 to treat mentally ill people. 754 00:42:50,088 --> 00:42:52,874 He went to his old friend, Raynor Johnson, 755 00:42:53,004 --> 00:42:54,745 who knew Anne Hamilton-Byrne 756 00:42:54,876 --> 00:42:57,792 and put the three of them in touch. 757 00:42:57,922 --> 00:43:01,273 [slow dramatic music] 758 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:03,798 - Most of the sect members were taken away 759 00:43:05,669 --> 00:43:10,631 to a psychiatric hospital in Newhaven in Kew, 760 00:43:10,761 --> 00:43:14,852 where they were administered LSD and psilocybin, 761 00:43:14,983 --> 00:43:17,376 another hallucinogenic drug. 762 00:43:17,507 --> 00:43:22,207 - The owner of Newhaven became a member of The Family cult, 763 00:43:22,947 --> 00:43:25,428 and that's how Anne then started 764 00:43:25,558 --> 00:43:29,127 to use Newhaven as a recruiting base. 765 00:43:30,215 --> 00:43:33,044 These professional people who had gone through 766 00:43:33,175 --> 00:43:37,353 a traumatic experience went to this private hospital 767 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:40,704 so that it was discrete, so it wasn't generally known. 768 00:43:41,966 --> 00:43:43,794 And when they were there, being administered with LSD, 769 00:43:52,890 --> 00:43:55,327 and then seeing the figure of Anne 770 00:43:55,458 --> 00:43:59,984 appearing at the doorway in a white gown 771 00:44:03,422 --> 00:44:05,381 with a bucket of bloody dry ice behind her, 772 00:44:07,513 --> 00:44:11,039 and then when they've come out of the LSD experience 773 00:44:11,169 --> 00:44:12,997 they actually believe that she's Jesus Christ. 774 00:44:15,608 --> 00:44:18,002 LSD was a legal drug for Newhaven 775 00:44:18,089 --> 00:44:19,264 because it had been authorised 776 00:44:19,395 --> 00:44:20,918 by the Victorian Health Department. 777 00:44:23,181 --> 00:44:25,880 And of course, those who administered LSD were sect members. 778 00:44:27,142 --> 00:44:29,100 - [Woman interviewer] Dr. Mackay, did you ever prescribe 779 00:44:29,231 --> 00:44:33,801 or administer LSD or psilocybin to people in The Family 780 00:44:35,237 --> 00:44:36,804 for so-called 'clearing sessions'? 781 00:44:38,240 --> 00:44:39,894 - Yes, I think that's fair enough 782 00:44:40,024 --> 00:44:41,199 to say yes to that question. 783 00:44:41,330 --> 00:44:43,506 Depends on what you define as a 'clearing'. 784 00:44:43,636 --> 00:44:44,855 - [Woman interviewer] How would you define it? 785 00:44:44,986 --> 00:44:49,164 - That was a way of describing looking 786 00:44:49,294 --> 00:44:53,777 into your own psyche to untie some knots, a little like-- 787 00:44:55,910 --> 00:44:56,911 - But these people weren't 788 00:44:57,041 --> 00:44:58,651 strictly speaking patients, were they? 789 00:44:58,739 --> 00:45:01,785 - Oh, they're all patients, all patients. 790 00:45:01,916 --> 00:45:04,875 [slow dramatic music] 791 00:45:10,098 --> 00:45:13,101 - The drug was given to me by my father, Howard Whitaker. 792 00:45:13,231 --> 00:45:15,756 Anne was there, and it was done under her instruction. 793 00:45:18,062 --> 00:45:20,543 A few minutes, maybe half an hour after it started, 794 00:45:21,283 --> 00:45:22,850 the world just went crazy. 795 00:45:22,980 --> 00:45:25,722 [dramatic music] 796 00:45:29,857 --> 00:45:33,077 And she whispered to me, "Who is Jesus?" 797 00:45:33,208 --> 00:45:36,124 And that thought bounced around my head 798 00:45:36,254 --> 00:45:37,952 and then bounced around the room for a while. 799 00:45:39,475 --> 00:45:42,608 So I said to her, "You're Jesus." 800 00:45:44,393 --> 00:45:47,309 And she goes, "That's right, David, that's right. 801 00:45:47,439 --> 00:45:49,485 "You always knew I was Jesus." 802 00:45:49,615 --> 00:45:52,618 [slow dramatic music] 803 00:45:52,749 --> 00:45:54,838 It was confirmed later by my father, Howard. 804 00:45:54,969 --> 00:45:56,884 He said, "Yeah, that's right, she's the prophet." 805 00:45:58,450 --> 00:46:01,236 And I was told in no uncertain terms 806 00:46:01,366 --> 00:46:04,979 that if I told anybody I'd end up in Newhaven and crazy. 807 00:46:05,066 --> 00:46:07,372 [slow music] 808 00:46:07,503 --> 00:46:10,593 - There was always the threat of the mental hospital. 809 00:46:10,723 --> 00:46:12,987 She said to one woman, 810 00:46:13,117 --> 00:46:15,206 "It only takes two psychiatrists to commit you. 811 00:46:15,293 --> 00:46:17,295 "And you'll be there for years 812 00:46:17,382 --> 00:46:19,471 "if that's what I say should happen." 813 00:46:21,082 --> 00:46:23,562 - Bill Byrne had an earthmoving business 814 00:46:23,693 --> 00:46:25,216 somewhere in the La Trobe Valley. 815 00:46:25,347 --> 00:46:27,697 He was quite a wealthy man. 816 00:46:29,090 --> 00:46:32,876 And Anne decided that this is the man that she would marry. 817 00:46:33,572 --> 00:46:36,140 He had four children and a wife. 818 00:46:38,186 --> 00:46:40,971 - May Byrne was a bit of a fighter 819 00:46:41,102 --> 00:46:42,799 and she didn't just give up easily. 820 00:46:42,930 --> 00:46:46,629 She didn't take to this woman taking over her husband 821 00:46:46,759 --> 00:46:49,240 and children too, and she stood up to it. 822 00:46:50,938 --> 00:46:52,809 Pretty quickly she was in Newhaven Hospital 823 00:46:54,985 --> 00:46:57,945 and put heavily under drugs with no knowledge 824 00:46:58,075 --> 00:46:59,120 whether she'd ever get out. 825 00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:07,737 And at one stage Anne went into the room and she said, 826 00:47:09,086 --> 00:47:13,003 "May, you might as well face it, he's mine now, not yours." 827 00:47:17,181 --> 00:47:18,008 - [Bill] How was that, kids? 828 00:47:18,139 --> 00:47:19,227 - How was that, kids? 829 00:47:19,357 --> 00:47:22,230 [both laughing] - [Man] Oh, look at that. 830 00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:24,101 - That's enough, Tim. 831 00:47:24,232 --> 00:47:27,235 [Tim laughing] [Anne laughing] 832 00:47:27,365 --> 00:47:29,628 - Anne would tell you to move to a different school, 833 00:47:29,759 --> 00:47:31,848 move to a different country, marry a different person. 834 00:47:31,979 --> 00:47:33,067 [slow music] 835 00:47:33,197 --> 00:47:35,721 Every time the person did that, 836 00:47:35,808 --> 00:47:39,116 then that reinforced her power over them. 837 00:47:39,247 --> 00:47:41,814 And I think she got her kicks directing people. 838 00:47:41,945 --> 00:47:45,775 - There was this man who had returned 839 00:47:45,906 --> 00:47:48,343 from India called Peter Kibby. 840 00:47:50,171 --> 00:47:52,782 And Anne told him that he should marry me 841 00:47:52,869 --> 00:47:55,567 and I should marry him. 842 00:47:55,698 --> 00:47:57,004 [people cheering] 843 00:47:57,091 --> 00:47:59,920 I did like him and I fell in love with him. 844 00:48:00,050 --> 00:48:01,356 [people applauding] 845 00:48:01,443 --> 00:48:03,880 But I had no idea how difficult it would be 846 00:48:04,011 --> 00:48:08,145 to live with a man who had a very bad case 847 00:48:08,276 --> 00:48:10,800 of obsessive compulsive disorder. 848 00:48:14,021 --> 00:48:16,066 - She looked at me once and she said, 849 00:48:16,197 --> 00:48:17,807 "Why don't you admit your marriage is over? 850 00:48:19,330 --> 00:48:22,116 "Why don't you just go home 851 00:48:22,246 --> 00:48:25,249 "and leave a little note and say it's over?" 852 00:48:27,599 --> 00:48:31,125 And the next thing I knew, Anne rang up and she said, 853 00:48:31,255 --> 00:48:33,954 "Frances," always called me Frances, 854 00:48:34,084 --> 00:48:35,607 "your little baby has arrived. 855 00:48:35,694 --> 00:48:38,915 Now jump in a taxi and go off to the children's hospital 856 00:48:39,002 --> 00:48:42,745 and ask for nurse such and such, and there he will be." 857 00:48:45,095 --> 00:48:45,966 I went into the ward. 858 00:48:47,489 --> 00:48:49,012 I looked around at the incubators. 859 00:48:50,579 --> 00:48:51,972 Then I saw him. 860 00:48:52,059 --> 00:48:54,148 [baby crying] 861 00:48:54,278 --> 00:48:56,933 And I just fell in love with that baby at first sight. 862 00:48:58,979 --> 00:49:01,459 I took him home and I was just so happy. 863 00:49:01,590 --> 00:49:03,809 He was gorgeous. 864 00:49:03,940 --> 00:49:08,727 And as he started growing up I had no reason 865 00:49:08,814 --> 00:49:11,208 then to think it wasn't legal. 866 00:49:11,295 --> 00:49:12,818 Later on I got worried. 867 00:49:15,604 --> 00:49:20,087 - When a child is born, delivered by sect doctors, 868 00:49:20,217 --> 00:49:24,221 given to a sect nurse, handed to a sect social worker, 869 00:49:26,136 --> 00:49:27,485 and then taken straight out of the hospital 870 00:49:27,572 --> 00:49:30,010 and given to Anne Hamilton-Byrne, 871 00:49:30,097 --> 00:49:33,013 you then start to understand the power 872 00:49:33,143 --> 00:49:35,841 that this person had over so many people. 873 00:49:43,153 --> 00:49:45,373 - It didn't take me long to realise 874 00:49:45,503 --> 00:49:48,898 that there was something really, really wrong going on. 875 00:49:49,029 --> 00:49:52,945 And that's when I disassociated myself from my mother. 876 00:49:53,076 --> 00:49:56,079 I told her that I could no longer 877 00:49:56,210 --> 00:49:58,125 have anything to do with her, 878 00:49:58,255 --> 00:50:00,910 and not to come back to the house 879 00:50:01,041 --> 00:50:03,565 because I was really frightened for my children. 880 00:50:06,133 --> 00:50:07,743 I was terrified that she would come 881 00:50:07,830 --> 00:50:10,833 and just take the children and disappear, 882 00:50:10,963 --> 00:50:12,878 and I wouldn't ever know where they were. 883 00:50:15,881 --> 00:50:20,060 - Les and I were married at Queen's College in 1960. 884 00:50:20,147 --> 00:50:23,106 Our first daughter was born four years later. 885 00:50:23,976 --> 00:50:26,066 When she started school I was worried 886 00:50:26,196 --> 00:50:28,111 that the cult might try to get hold of her. 887 00:50:29,852 --> 00:50:31,680 I went to the headmaster at the primary school 888 00:50:31,767 --> 00:50:34,074 and said to him, "Nobody's to take her out of school 889 00:50:34,204 --> 00:50:36,902 "without you asking me first." 890 00:50:37,033 --> 00:50:38,078 He said, "Well who would?" 891 00:50:38,165 --> 00:50:39,818 I says, "Well, the people might come 892 00:50:39,949 --> 00:50:41,124 "and say they're her grandparents, 893 00:50:41,255 --> 00:50:42,995 "or aunties, or something. 894 00:50:43,126 --> 00:50:45,694 "Nobody, nobody's to take her out of school 895 00:50:45,781 --> 00:50:50,525 "except me or her own dad, only us." 896 00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:53,832 Because I was scared of them. 897 00:50:55,007 --> 00:50:55,834 I just was. 898 00:50:59,011 --> 00:51:01,318 They were so involved with these people 899 00:51:02,798 --> 00:51:03,886 that they'd be a party to anything. 900 00:51:10,632 --> 00:51:13,374 - There was a growing unease. 901 00:51:14,636 --> 00:51:17,552 Things were not as they should be at Queen's College. 902 00:51:17,682 --> 00:51:21,599 And probably the Master was to blame 903 00:51:21,730 --> 00:51:24,080 because he was into all this weird stuff 904 00:51:24,167 --> 00:51:25,864 and had written these weird books. 905 00:51:28,998 --> 00:51:32,219 It was a strongly Methodist place, 906 00:51:32,306 --> 00:51:36,310 and institutional religion began to be worried about him. 907 00:51:39,139 --> 00:51:42,098 There were mumblings about dismissing him 908 00:51:42,229 --> 00:51:45,145 or maybe even having a heresy trial. 909 00:51:46,494 --> 00:51:50,193 Raynor saw Anne was a medium, 910 00:51:50,324 --> 00:51:53,805 the sense that through this person 911 00:51:53,936 --> 00:51:58,027 the spirit world was addressing him, had called him, 912 00:51:59,159 --> 00:52:03,424 led to a view that meant that he couldn't be wrong. 913 00:52:06,470 --> 00:52:09,430 And that's really a dangerous situation to arrive at. 914 00:52:13,434 --> 00:52:15,784 - I met the children a few years after 915 00:52:15,871 --> 00:52:18,003 I started investigating the sect. 916 00:52:18,134 --> 00:52:20,876 It took a long time to convince people 917 00:52:21,006 --> 00:52:22,573 that there was a problem. 918 00:52:22,704 --> 00:52:24,096 You keep a lot of children 919 00:52:24,227 --> 00:52:25,315 in the commune here, is that right? 920 00:52:25,446 --> 00:52:26,316 - [Auntie Trish] No, that's not right at all. 921 00:52:26,447 --> 00:52:28,188 - There's no children here? - No, no. 922 00:52:28,318 --> 00:52:30,973 - Right, why do the locals say there's children here? 923 00:52:31,103 --> 00:52:32,801 There's such secrecy around her. 924 00:52:32,931 --> 00:52:35,717 Devotees would do anything to protect Anne. 925 00:52:36,805 --> 00:52:38,937 So you're up against a lot of brick walls. 926 00:52:39,068 --> 00:52:40,591 - We just don't want to speak to you. 927 00:52:40,722 --> 00:52:41,940 There's nothing to talk about. 928 00:52:42,071 --> 00:52:42,985 - Does it concern you the allegations 929 00:52:43,115 --> 00:52:44,291 former sect members have been making? 930 00:52:44,421 --> 00:52:46,554 - No, it doesn't concern me one bit. 931 00:52:46,684 --> 00:52:48,860 - Are you a follower of Mrs Hamilton-Byrne's? 932 00:52:48,991 --> 00:52:50,427 - I'm a friend of Mrs Hamilton-Byrne's. 933 00:52:50,558 --> 00:52:52,255 - Do you believe she's a teacher? 934 00:52:52,342 --> 00:52:53,604 - I believe that she's just 935 00:52:53,735 --> 00:52:55,824 a great friend of mine, all right? 936 00:52:55,911 --> 00:52:56,520 Now can you leave the property? 937 00:52:56,651 --> 00:52:57,826 - Is she a teacher? 938 00:52:57,956 --> 00:52:59,697 Is she your guru? 939 00:52:59,828 --> 00:53:01,569 - I don't think I have anything to say, all right? 940 00:53:01,699 --> 00:53:03,310 [slow music] 941 00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:05,486 - Anne would ring up and want to hear us being disciplined. 942 00:53:05,616 --> 00:53:08,010 This was something that she wanted to happen 943 00:53:08,140 --> 00:53:09,838 and the aunts were obeying her rules. 944 00:53:12,406 --> 00:53:14,059 - I always hated my mum. 945 00:53:14,190 --> 00:53:16,453 I was petrified of her. 946 00:53:16,540 --> 00:53:19,021 She was rough and nasty. 947 00:53:19,151 --> 00:53:21,850 Mum was, I hate to say it, but she was a bitch. 948 00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:24,896 - [Detective] Would you tell me your full name and 949 00:53:25,027 --> 00:53:26,376 address please? 950 00:53:26,507 --> 00:53:28,770 - Elizabeth Jean Whitaker, [beep] Ferny Creek. 951 00:53:31,903 --> 00:53:34,036 - All right, and your occupation? 952 00:53:34,166 --> 00:53:36,038 - State registered nurse. 953 00:53:36,168 --> 00:53:37,431 - Is that your signature? 954 00:53:45,395 --> 00:53:47,571 No comment. - Sorry? 955 00:53:47,702 --> 00:53:49,486 - No comment. 956 00:53:49,617 --> 00:53:51,488 - Do you recognise that document? 957 00:53:51,619 --> 00:53:53,751 It's a photostat document of an original. 958 00:53:53,882 --> 00:53:54,839 - No comment. 959 00:53:54,970 --> 00:53:56,493 - We had metre long rulers. 960 00:53:56,580 --> 00:53:58,103 This was Elizabeth Whitaker. 961 00:53:58,234 --> 00:53:59,975 And I remember her one night, it was hot, 962 00:54:00,105 --> 00:54:02,020 she had the fan on for us. 963 00:54:02,151 --> 00:54:04,022 She forgot to turn it off, thought we'd turned it back on, 964 00:54:04,153 --> 00:54:06,024 and when she woke up it's on, 965 00:54:06,155 --> 00:54:07,983 and demanded to know who done it, 966 00:54:08,070 --> 00:54:11,160 and then flew into a rage and just swang that ruler around. 967 00:54:11,291 --> 00:54:13,467 And it collected people on their ribs, across the head. 968 00:54:13,597 --> 00:54:16,339 I mean, it was just, she lost the plot. 969 00:54:16,426 --> 00:54:19,299 - She pulled a cane out and started beating me 970 00:54:19,429 --> 00:54:21,344 around the head and the shoulders. 971 00:54:21,475 --> 00:54:26,654 So then I got up and I was trying to cover, protect myself. 972 00:54:27,742 --> 00:54:30,484 And as I moved around the table, I tripped. 973 00:54:30,614 --> 00:54:32,964 And there was a large pipe going from floor to ceiling, 974 00:54:33,095 --> 00:54:35,663 and I just curled round that, and the beating 975 00:54:35,793 --> 00:54:37,839 just kept coming, she just kept hitting me, 976 00:54:37,969 --> 00:54:39,971 and kept hitting me. 977 00:54:40,102 --> 00:54:42,887 - Did you want to speak to your solicitor again? 978 00:54:43,018 --> 00:54:44,454 Or try to ring him again? 979 00:54:44,585 --> 00:54:45,803 - I would like to. 980 00:54:45,934 --> 00:54:46,804 - All right, well we'll make arrangements. 981 00:54:46,935 --> 00:54:48,240 - [Anouree] Unfortunately the relationship 982 00:54:48,328 --> 00:54:50,025 between the aunties and ourselves 983 00:54:50,155 --> 00:54:55,247 was so catastrophic that I viewed the aunties, 984 00:54:56,336 --> 00:54:57,859 and all adults, as extremely dangerous people 985 00:54:57,989 --> 00:54:59,469 to stay away from. 986 00:54:59,600 --> 00:55:01,863 [slow music] 987 00:55:03,343 --> 00:55:04,909 - When Anne and Bill were there, 988 00:55:04,996 --> 00:55:08,086 we'd be disciplined heavily by her and by Bill. 989 00:55:08,217 --> 00:55:10,219 And you remember absolute terror. 990 00:55:12,787 --> 00:55:14,310 - I was always a daddy's girl. 991 00:55:14,397 --> 00:55:16,399 You know, he was my knight in shining armour. 992 00:55:18,140 --> 00:55:19,881 But he did awful things. 993 00:55:20,011 --> 00:55:21,926 - I mean, when he lost his temper and he beat people, 994 00:55:22,057 --> 00:55:25,060 he was savage and he was horrible. 995 00:55:28,237 --> 00:55:29,151 - Sarah was thrashed. 996 00:55:35,592 --> 00:55:36,201 Excuse me. 997 00:55:38,334 --> 00:55:41,511 Yeah, it was watching her being belted with a buckle, 998 00:55:44,122 --> 00:55:45,689 being beaten to the point 999 00:55:45,820 --> 00:55:47,561 where she's wriggling out of her clothes, 1000 00:55:50,477 --> 00:55:52,914 hearing her body smash against the, 1001 00:55:57,353 --> 00:55:58,572 across the balustrade. 1002 00:55:58,702 --> 00:56:03,968 It was horrendous to know 1003 00:56:05,056 --> 00:56:05,840 they had the power to do that, and would do it. 1004 00:56:09,974 --> 00:56:12,455 [birds chirping] 1005 00:56:12,542 --> 00:56:15,023 - What was going on was wrong. 1006 00:56:15,153 --> 00:56:17,242 Someone had to do something about it. 1007 00:56:17,373 --> 00:56:18,722 [slow dramatic music] 1008 00:56:18,853 --> 00:56:20,985 So I jumped out the window onto the tank, 1009 00:56:21,116 --> 00:56:22,857 slid down the tank, and ran down 1010 00:56:22,987 --> 00:56:24,467 to the lake and kept running. 1011 00:56:29,167 --> 00:56:31,822 [Leeanne panting] 1012 00:56:33,694 --> 00:56:35,478 I was petrified. 1013 00:56:35,609 --> 00:56:38,046 The adrenaline kept me going until I saw a light. 1014 00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:42,920 All I could say to them was, "Please get me the police." 1015 00:56:43,051 --> 00:56:45,009 So they did. 1016 00:56:45,096 --> 00:56:47,490 A very nice constable turned up. 1017 00:56:47,621 --> 00:56:50,493 He said to me, "What are you going to do?" 1018 00:56:50,624 --> 00:56:51,886 And I said, "I don't care. 1019 00:56:51,973 --> 00:56:53,540 "But I will sleep in the gutter 1020 00:56:53,670 --> 00:56:54,932 "if you don't do something, 1021 00:56:55,063 --> 00:56:56,760 "because I'm not going back there." 1022 00:57:00,372 --> 00:57:01,983 [dog barking] 1023 00:57:02,113 --> 00:57:02,984 [child sobbing] 1024 00:57:03,114 --> 00:57:04,159 - [Detective] You're Anouree. 1025 00:57:04,246 --> 00:57:06,683 - We're going away. - Anouree. 1026 00:57:06,814 --> 00:57:08,119 - We are. - You can trust us. 1027 00:57:08,250 --> 00:57:09,469 - Are we going to go away-- - Great big deep breaths. 1028 00:57:09,599 --> 00:57:11,427 - [Child] You broke Mum and Dad's heart. 1029 00:57:11,558 --> 00:57:14,299 - So I'm lying in bed at the end of that night 1030 00:57:14,430 --> 00:57:16,693 thinking through what had happened through the day. 1031 00:57:23,657 --> 00:57:25,223 It's probably when I realised 1032 00:57:27,095 --> 00:57:30,098 the prison doors had opened for good. 1033 00:57:30,228 --> 00:57:33,188 [slow music] 1034 00:57:33,318 --> 00:57:35,059 - [Radio Interviewer] How many did you actually adopt? 1035 00:57:35,190 --> 00:57:36,104 How many are your natural children? 1036 00:57:36,234 --> 00:57:38,062 - [Anne] There are eight or nine. 1037 00:57:38,193 --> 00:57:39,455 You got eight this morning 1038 00:57:39,586 --> 00:57:40,761 when we were counting it out, weren't we? 1039 00:57:40,891 --> 00:57:42,414 We never told them they weren't ours. 1040 00:57:42,545 --> 00:57:45,417 - [Lex] At the birth we've got a doctor who's a sect member, 1041 00:57:45,548 --> 00:57:47,550 a midwife that's a sect member. 1042 00:57:47,681 --> 00:57:50,205 - [Roland] I'm sure my mum was coerced to give me up. 1043 00:57:50,335 --> 00:57:51,989 - I'm wondering if you've got any comment to make now 1044 00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:54,122 about what happened to the children. 1045 00:57:54,252 --> 00:57:56,951 - [Robert Maclellan] Shots are being fired through windows. 1046 00:57:57,081 --> 00:57:58,822 Car tyres are being slashed. 1047 00:57:58,953 --> 00:58:00,084 There are death threats. 1048 00:58:00,215 --> 00:58:02,130 - She would say all we had to do 1049 00:58:02,260 --> 00:58:04,306 is just follow what she said, 1050 00:58:04,393 --> 00:58:08,745 except that it was never quite right, or were never enough. 1051 00:58:08,876 --> 00:58:12,314 - Millions of dollars went through Auntie Anne's pockets. 1052 00:58:12,444 --> 00:58:16,231 - I know that Muktananda practised black magic. 1053 00:58:16,361 --> 00:58:20,017 That's why Anne was there, to learn more about it. 1054 00:58:20,148 --> 00:58:21,758 - [Lex] There were so many bizarre stories 1055 00:58:21,845 --> 00:58:23,804 about who she was. 1056 00:58:23,934 --> 00:58:25,066 - [Roland] I didn't even know 1057 00:58:25,153 --> 00:58:26,763 that Auntie Anne had another name. 1058 00:58:28,722 --> 00:58:31,812 [slow dramatic music]