# The Family · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 060 · Apocalyptic / Doomsday
The Family
Santiniketan Park Association; the Great White Brotherhood of Initiates
1963 – 1987 · Ferny Creek and Lake Eildon, Victoria, Australia
VI. THE 1970s — THE GREAT PROLIFERATION
Fully religious — Theosophy-derived apocalyptic sect
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1963 Hamilton-Byrne begins teaching yoga in Melbourne; Johnson introduces her to educated professional recruits, including doctors, nurses, lawyers and social workers.
- 1968–1975 Fourteen infants and young children are acquired, and up to 28 pass through in all — some the natural children of members, others obtained through falsified birth certificates arranged by cooperating doctors, nurses and lawyers. They are raised in isolation at Kai Lama, a house at Lake Eildon.
- 1970s–80s Members work as anaesthetists and psychiatrists; the Newhaven private psychiatric hospital in Kew is used to recruit patients treated with LSD and deep-sleep therapy.
- 1987 Sarah Moore is expelled and begins talking to police.
- 14 AUGUST 1987 OPERATION FOREST. Victoria Police and community services raid Kai Lama and remove six remaining children.
- 1993 Hamilton-Byrne and her husband arrested in the Catskills, New York, and extradited.
- 1994 Convicted only of making a false declaration — a 5,000 dollar fine each. No child abuse charges were successfully brought.
- 2010s She makes a SECRET OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT with one alleged victim, who said he had been routinely injected with LSD at her direction.
- 2019 A CLASS ACTION BY SURVIVORS was under way — suing her over roughly nineteen years of abuse — when she died. HER DEATH DERAILED IT. The civil route closed at the same moment the criminal one did.
- 14 June 2019 Anne Hamilton-Byrne dies in a Melbourne nursing home aged 98, having never faced trial for the abuse.
- 2020–2026 Australian public attention to coercive religious groups revives sharply — television, podcasts and survivor activism — and leads to the establishment of a PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY IN THE STATE OF VICTORIA, the jurisdiction where The Family operated.
### Its people
### Anne Hamilton-Byrne
Evelyn Grace Victoria Edwards
Leader, The Family (Santiniketan Park Association) · 30 December 1921 – 13 June 2019 · active 1963–1987
Before the law. CONVICTED ONLY OF A FALSE DECLARATION. NO CHILD ABUSE CHARGE WAS EVER SUCCESSFULLY BROUGHT.
Where things stand. Deceased 13 June 2019, aged 98, having never faced trial for the abuse. A survivors' CLASS ACTION against her was pending at the time and was derailed by her death. She had earlier settled one claim out of court in secret, brought by a man who said he was routinely injected with LSD on her instruction.
- 1963 Begins teaching yoga in Melbourne.
- 1968–75 Acquires fourteen children, several through falsified paperwork; up to 28 pass through in all.
- 14 August 1987 Operation Forest — police raid Kai Lama and remove six children.
- 1993 Arrested in New York and extradited.
- 1994 Convicted of making a false declaration; fined 5,000 dollars.
- 13 June 2019 Dies in a Melbourne nursing home aged 98.
Checked 2026-08-24
### Sarah Moore Hamilton-Byrne
Sarah Moore
Survivor of The Family (Australia) whose defection ended it · 1968 – 2016 · active 1968–1987
Before the law. Never charged. The witness whose defection ended the group.
Where things stand. Deceased 2016. Anne Hamilton-Byrne outlived her by three years and was never tried for the abuse.
- 1968 Acquired as an infant by the group through falsified paperwork.
- 1970s–80s Raised in isolation at Lake Eildon; dosed with LSD at 14.
- 1987 Expelled from the group; goes to the police.
- 14 August 1987 Operation Forest — six remaining children removed.
- 1995 Publishes Unseen, Unheard, Unknown.
- 2016 Dies aged 46.
Checked
### Detective Sergeant Lex de Man
—
Victoria Police officer who ran Operation Forest · born c.1955 · active 1987–1994
Before the law. Police investigator.
Where things stand. RETIRED FROM POLICING, BUT NOT RETIRED — THIS FILE SAID SIMPLY ‘RETIRED’ AND THAT IS MISLEADING. After Hamilton-Byrne’s guilty plea he left Victoria Police for the COUNTRY FIRE AUTHORITY, where he worked for two decades, and SINCE 2016 HE HAS BEEN CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF VICTORIAN POLICE LEGACY, which supports the families of deceased police officers. HE WAS A 29-YEAR-OLD SERGEANT IN THE ARSON SQUAD when he compiled the report that caused Victoria Police to stand up the task force at all. He then worked Operation Forest for its full five years — THE ONLY DETECTIVE TO SEE IT THROUGH FROM BEGINNING TO END — uncovering the illegal adoptions, Hamilton-Byrne’s multiple identities, the false land transfers and the social security fraud. He continues to speak publicly about the case.
- 1987 Sarah Moore goes to police; Operation Forest begins.
- 14 AUGUST 1987 The Kai Lama raid; six children removed.
- 1987–93 Builds the case; pursues Hamilton-Byrne internationally.
- 1993 Hamilton-Byrne arrested in the Catskills and extradited.
- 1994 She is convicted only of making a false declaration and fined 5,000 dollars.
- 2010s Speaks publicly for documentaries on the case.
Checked 2026-08-24 · living: health details are kept at home
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