Inside The Aussie Cult That Tore My Family Apart

After decades of silence, Tricia Leask courageously speaks out for the first time about the horrors of the most sinister sect our country has seen.

- Leigh Reinhold

When doting mum Tricia Leask discovered her little boy had visited the Victorian headquarters of notorious cult The Family, fear swept through her.

What made the discovery even more harrowing was the fact it was Tricia’s own mother who’d subjected her grandson to the apocalyptic sect. To protect her son, Tricia was left with no choice but to disown her own mother… for good.

“I told my mother not to take him there and when I learned she had ignored my wishes, I was scared for all four of my children and what could happen to them,” Tricia tells Woman’s Day.

Years before, Tricia’s mum, Eileen Johnston, had deserted her family to follow yoga instructor Anne HamiltonByrne, a glamorous, self-made, maniacal messiah who became one of history’s few female cult leaders.

Recruited and “brainwashed” as an “Aunty” by Hamilton-Byrne in the late ’60s, Eileen joined the cult’s other Aunties, as well as Hamilton-Byrne’s husband Bill, at their eerie and remote property at Lake Eildon, 200km north-east of Melbourne.

There, countless children – who were acquired by illegal adoption or given up by cult recruits – were charged to their care and stashed away.

The innocent youngsters were subjected to horrendous beatings and torture, including having their heads held under water, being starved and being dosed with hallucinogenics and tranquillisers.