‘Cult’ Property For Sale in Ferny Creek

When Santiniketan Lodge went up for sale earlier this year, I knew I had to see it in person. Not because I had any interest in purchasing the 7.7acre property – after all, I’m a full-time doctoral student barely scraping by – but my curiosity had been piqued by everything I’d read about the infamous ‘cult’ property.

Old sect property known as ‘Santiniketan Lodge’ is on the market for a $1.5m-$1.65m asking range. Photo: Fletchers Real Estate

It had been 9 months since I first began researching the Australian sect known as ‘The Family’ or the ‘Santiniketan Park Association’ and trying to gain access inside the lodge had been a challenge (the property was given to the Tibetan Cultural Society back in 2020).

When I saw the ‘for sale’ advert pop up on REA the fieldwork fire was set alight inside me. Without hesitation, I booked myself in for their next open day. Finally… my research would take me away from the computer screen and on site to the headquarters of, what has been labelled as, Australia’s most notorious ‘cult’.

Pronouncing the name can be challenging. ‘San-tee-nee-keh-ten’ – from Sanskrit meaning “the abode of peace.” A very fitting name for a sect whose beliefs were drawn from a mix of Eastern philosophy such as Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as theosophy, Christianity, and the occult.

While membership has dwindled down to a few remaining followers these days, the group’s tainted past continues to appear in the media from time to time. The image you may see when you hear of The Family, is most likely to be of the young children with peroxide blonde hair wearing matching smocks (see below).

In 1965, The Family first began adopting children from hospitals in Melbourne. The children were considered to be ‘saviours’ of an impending apocalypse and lived on a property in Lake Eildon known as Uptop or Kai Lama. Today, child-survivors recall their childhood as being a prison. Each day they would perform Hatha yoga, eat a strict vegetarian diet, and experience physical abuse perpetrated by their carers (known as ‘aunties’) under the direction of Hamilton-Byrne.

From the 1960s, Santiniketan Lodge was one of the three main meeting places in the Dandenong Ranges where adult members of the sect would gather to meditate and listen to their ‘master’, Hamilton-Byrne give sermons on spirituality and reincarnation.

From the 1960s, The Family began adopting children. Photo: BBC

Walking up the long gravel driveway towards the lodge, I realised just how secluded it was. Neatly tucked away from the road, the further I went, the more distant the hum of cars became.

The property stands in a decrepit state of graffiti and broken glass. It’s an eyesore amongst one of Melbourne’s most private and stunning suburbs. Just over an hour’s drive from Melbourne’s CBD, the Dandenong Ranges is home to giant eucalypts that touch the sky and the whitenoise of birdsong – think kookaburras, cockateels, rosellas, and peahens. The suburb of Ferny Creek and its surrounding neighbours Sassafras and Sherbrooke have a very distinct countryside feel, with quant shops, cafes, and lots of walking tracks.

Inside the 70s brick lodge, the smell of camphor and mould masked its past, where I could imagine incense and Hamilton-Byrne’s signature Chanel-perfume wafted through the corridors back in the day. There was an eeriness as I walked around the main hall and adjoining rooms. No working electricity, meant no lights. I was hoping to find something, an object of some sort that may have resembled life inside the sect? A poster or printed discourse displayed. Anything. But much had been cleared out with only drabs of retired furniture left collecting dust.

As I watched people inspect the property, I considered if they were like me, just having a sticky beak – only fascinated with the lodge’s association with a notorious sect in Australia’s history – or were they actually prospective buyers?

Yoga classes, meditation, and discourses by sect leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne took place in the main hall. Photo: Fletchers Real Estate

I’m sure there will be quite a few true crime enthusiasts and locals eager to check out the property before it goes off the market. Back in May, The Herald Sun ran a piece on the listed property. And thanks to the 2016 documentary The Family and the more recent 2023 dramatisation The Clearing, fascination in the story of this infamous sect has been reignited.

Will buyers be drawn to the endless possibilities of this expansive location in leafy Ferny Creek? Perhaps they’ll tear down the lodge and rebuild a new and improved community hall. Or will it remain inhabited, for the curious ‘cult busters’ to continue jumping the fence and imagining what may have taken place behind those wooden doors?