Australia, a land known for its stunning landscapes and vibrant cities, also harbours a lesser-known side: the secretive world of religious orders and regimes.
These groups, often shrouded in mystery, have left their mark on various properties across the country, often chosen for their isolation and tranquillity to serve as both sanctuaries and fortresses for the people that inhabit them.
They provide a physical space where followers can live according to their beliefs, away from the scrutiny of the outside world.
However, the presence of these groups has not gone unnoticed by local communities, many of whom have raised concerns about the activities taking place behind closed doors.
As the stories of these groups unfold, they reveal a complex tapestry of belief, control, and community.
The properties they occupy are more than just buildings; they are the stage upon which the dramas of devotion and dissent play out.
In exploring the world of Australian’s most notorious religious groups, it becomes clear that the properties they inhabit are as much a part of their identity as the doctrines they preach.
These locations, steeped in secrecy and speculation, continue to captivate the public imagination, offering a window into a world that remains largely hidden from view.
THE FAMILY
One of the most infamous religious regimes in Australian history is The Family, led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne.
Formed in 1963 with renowned physicist Dr Raynor Johnson, along with Anne’s husband Bill Hamilton-Byrne, the doomsday group – also known as the Santiniketan Park Association or the Great White Brotherhood – stole children through brainwashing and adoption scams, and Anne raised them as her own.
The kids, some aged from only several months old, lived out their childhood years at the group’s property ‘Kai Lama’ at Lake Eildon, a compound, hidden among dense bushland, around 240km north east of Melbourne.
Convincing followers that she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, the religious group’s design was for one true master race; the 28 stolen children were dressed identically, with matching bleached blonde hair.
Children of the The Family were given matching hairstyles and led to believe Hamilton-Byrne was their birth mother.
The group 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 victims of the group were eventually rescued during a police raid in 1987, but the reverberations of their trauma had only just begun.
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.
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.
The Hamilton-Byrne boys at Lake Eildon in a scene from the documentary TV series The Cult of the Family. Supplied by ABC-TV.
Earlier this year, the regime’s history was again brought to the forefront with the sale of the groups semi-derelict former home in Melbourne’s outer southeast.
The Ferny Creek property, previously owned by the Santiniketan Park Association, is for sale with a $1.5m-$1.65m price guide and consists of two lots, the largest of which measures 3.11ha and features a graffitied brick building with damaged windows.
The listing describes the circa-1970s community hall as large enough to hold about 100 people.
An aerial shot of the Ferny Creek property.
Group members would hold regular services at the hall, where Anne Hamilton-Byrne would sit in a purple chair below a large crucifix.
According to 1980s media reports, the hall was built by Hamilton-Byrne and her followers who would hold regular services there.
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.
In 2019, a 98-year-old Hamilton-Byrne died during a class action trial against her.
TWELVE TRIBES
Another notable group is the Twelve Tribes, which had established communities in various parts of Australia, including Picton, New South Wales, where they established a commune and several businesses.
This fundamentalist Christian group, which emerged from the Jesus movement in the United States during the early 1970s, is known for its strict adherence to Old Testament teachings. Members live communally, shun modern technology, and follow a lifestyle that includes banning contraception and discouraging medical interventions.
But it is the group’s reputation for its harsh corporal punishment of children, even toddlers and babies, and claims of exploitation given that members work for no pay, that has drawn condemnation.
In 2020, the New South Wales Police launched Strike Force Nanegai to investigate child abuse allegations.
Police officers dig on a twelve tribes property near the NSW town of Picton. Credit: ABC
Still of YouTube video from Peppercorn Creek Farm, Picton, and Common Ground Bakery and cafe at Picton, operated by the Twelve Tribes communities. Picture: YouTube
Members of the Twelve Tribes communities in Katoomba during a Winter Magic celebration 2009. Image: YouTube
The investigation uncovered the remains of at least one baby on the Twelve Tribes property at Bigga, near Crookwell and although the search extended to Peppercorn Creek Farm, no remains were found there.
The matter was later referred to the state coroner after consultation with the Director of Public Prosecutions and prompted the release of a true-crime podcast, Inside the Tribe, by journalists Tim Elliott and Camille Bianchi.
The podcast heard from dozens of former members claiming incidences of child abuse, labour violations and even illegally buried stillborn babies.
Heightened scrutiny and financial pressures subsequently saw the Twelve Tribes sell-off of more than $6 million worth of property in 2023.
A member of the Twelve Tribes, speaking anonymously to The Sydney Morning Herald from the sect’s Yellow Deli cafe in the Blue Mountains, explained that the sales were a strategic move to alleviate debt.
“Basically, interest rates are getting ridiculous, and we want to consolidate right now and hedge our bets,” he said.
The infamous Peppercorn Creek Farm at 1375 Remembrance Driveway Razorback. Picture: United Realty
The sale included an unfinished house.
A cottage was also attached to the incomplete home.
Among the properties listed was Peppercorn Creek Farm at 1580 Remembrance Driveway.
Property record show the site sold for $3.4m in June, 2023, with the sale encompassing the Razorback Inn Homestead, a bakery/cafe and large woolshed.
The group’s main 8.3-hectare landholding at 1375 Remembrance Driveway also sold for $2.4m and included an “owner-built, partially constructed house” that has been under construction for over five years, along with three large sheds, a separate house, organic farmland, and a creek.
The Twelve Tribes is also believed to owns properties in the Blue Mountains, including the popular Yellow Deli in Katoomba, purchased for $1.5 million in 2004.
Another of the group’s corporate entities, Granite Hill Investments, owns the landmark Victorian guesthouse, Balmoral House, acquired in 2010 for $1.1 million.
THE ANGLICAN CATHOLIC MISSION COMMUNITY
In Queensland, a secretive religious group, formerly known as the Jesus People of North Queensland, is said to have amassed a sprawling multimillion-dollar real estate empire on the back of its members.
The group, now called the Anglican Catholic Mission Community, directly owns seven properties stretching from Glenwood in South East Queensland to Cooktown in the state’s far north.
Several other properties are listed on property records as being owned by current or former clan leaders who have been embroiled in a bitter battle for control of the fundamentalist religious group.
They include an inner Sydney warehouse at Redfern – bought more than 30 years ago for just $40,000, which is now estimated to be worth as much as $3m.
Copy pic of former clan leader Daniel Landy-Ariel and his Jesus People at their commune at Herberton, in Queensland in the mid-1980s.
The Australian Catholic Mission Community’s commune at Watsonville, near Atherton in Far North Queensland. Picture: Brian Cassey
The clan’s main Queensland commune, meanwhile, is located at Watsonville, outside Herberton on the Atherton Tableland.
The ACMC also owns two blocks of land in the heart of Cape York tourist haven Cooktown and East Trinity near Cairns, according to a Courier Mail investigation.
The group made headlines in 2023 when a special investigation by the Sunday Mail revealed, for the first time, the inner workings of the ACMC, including strict rules which state members are given just one set of clothes and are required to be fluent in an ancient language, while university education is considered “brainwash”.
Children are to be homeschooled in a strict religious education, which is not recognised in the Australian curriculum.
Anglican Catholic Mission Community rules
The inner workings were laid bare in explosive court documents, filed in the Queensland Supreme Court as part of a dispute over the group’s multimillion-dollar property portfolio.
The documents detailed the level of control the leader of the group has over its members who need to seek permission to leave or eat outside the compound.
The rules specify gender-based jobs – women are encouraged to work in the fitness industry or be chefs and bookkeepers, while men are encouraged to work in trades.
The court documents revealed there are about 100 adults living under the rule of the ACMC, plus many children, who live across compounds in NSW and Queensland.
The group – formerly known as the Jesus People of North Queensland – is ruled by men, with the leader called the “reshan”.
The Jesus People were founded in the 1970s.
THE INSTITUTE IN BASIC LIFE PRINCIPLES
A US religious group — whose founder quit amid a wave of allegations of sexual assault — also offered a glimpse behind the scenes when it sold its Australian headquarters in 2017.
The Institute in Basic Life Principles’ 3.36ha “Yarra training facility” on Melbourne’s fringe sold for $9.5m to a developer who planned to turn the site into a housing estate.
The IBLP had run its home school program and seminars from the property, which features on-site houses, apartment complexes, conference centres and a commercial kitchen.
“We were sort of driven out really by the cost of utilities,” IBLP Australian director Robin Harrison said at time of sale.
“Mainly electricity got beyond the capacity of the families to support, so we’re looking around for another home for the institute … the electricity bill just doubled in one year. It was $7000 a month just for electricity, so that’s what tipped it over. It’s a pity to lose the open spaces.”
An aerial view of the property.
The IBLP aims to teach followers how to succeed in life through principles found in Scripture.
Millions of people have attended IBLP seminars worldwide, according to its website.
The IBLP claims millions have attended its seminars since it was founded by Bill Gothard in 1961.
The group states its purpose is to provide instruction on how to “succeed in life” by following principles found in Scripture — but it has been marred by serious allegations in the US of sexual harassment and abuse as well as cover-ups.
The IBLP incorporates several “programs”, including its advanced training institute, which had a branch at the Lilydale property.
That is a Bible-based homeschooling program whose most notorious alumni are the stars of canned US reality TV show 19 Kids and Counting.
The show was engulfed by scandal in 2015 after the eldest son admitted sexually abusing girls, including several of his sisters.
He is believed to have attended a IBLP-run facility after admitting the abuse.
Mr Gothard resigned in 2014 after more than 30 women made sexual harassment and molestation claims against him.
KENJA COMMUNICATION
The notorious Kenja Communication has also faced numerous controversies over the years.
Described as a “training facility for people who want to develop their ability to be more effective or ‘cause’ over their lives”, Kenja was founded in Australia in 1982 by Ken Dyers and his partner Jan Hamilton.
The group has centres in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, and the group’s website emphatically denies it is a religious group or cult, instead insisting “Kenja training views self-determinism as an imperative for personal growth”.
Among Kenja’s most controversial practices are “energy conversion meditation” and “Kenja klowning”, with the former described online as “the spirit in action” which involves “viewing the physical world with spiritual detachment and experiencing energy in its various forms”.
Ken and Jan Dyers perform an energy conversion in the documentary film Beyond Our Ken which goes behind the scenes of the controversial cult Kenja.
But a number of former members have claimed the sessions with Ken Dyers were one-on-one, with participants – including women and children – fully naked.
“Sometimes we’d be processed naked in one-on-one sessions – Ken said it helped energy flow freely through the body. Once, when I woke from the fog of a naked processing session, Ken was lying on top of me with his trousers and underpants around his ankles. But my Kenjan mind-training kicked in and I immediately dismissed the idea he’d acted inappropriately, reasoning I could trust Ken and, if he’d touched me, I’d remember it,” former member Annette Stephens wrote in a 2012 article published by news.com.au.
Ken Dyers later faced a string of child sexual abuse charges, although he was only convicted of one charge, which was then overturned after appeal.
Kenja, Personal Communication Consultants at 388 Bourke St, Melbourne.
The group’s Sydney home at 21 Mary Street, Surry Hills.
In 1992 Liberal MP Stephen Mutch described Dyers in parliament as “a seedy conman selling mumbo-jumbo garbage” and in 1993, Dyers was charged with 11 counts of sexual assault against four girls before being acquitted.
In 2005 Dyers was charged with another 22 counts, but the case was deferred after the NSW District Court ordered a mental health assessment.
Dyers took his own life in 2007 at the age of 85 after being informed by police that new allegations had been made against him.
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