A VERY TWISTED FAMILY

GO INSIDE THE SINISTER VICTORIAN CULT

- Megan Rowe

Driving around in a Jaguar, adorned in designer clothing and wearing Chanel perfume, Anne Hamilton Byrne appeared every bit the glamorous aristocrat.

In reality, she was the evil matriarch of doomsday sect The Family, who convinced her 500 followers to give her everything - even their children.

The dark tale is now back in the headlines thanks to the upcoming TV drama The Clearing, which is loosely inspired by The Family.

Born Evelyn Edwards in 1921, Hamilton-Byrne spent her younger years in various Melbourne orphanages, while her mother floated between asylums suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Her father was itinerant, so Evelyn changed her name as soon as she could.

Marrying young, she was about to adopt a child when her husband died in a tragic car accident.

Devastated, Hamilton Byrne turned to yoga for salvation and went on to teach affluent women in the suburbs of Melbourne.

Her masterstroke was introducing herself to Dr Raynor Johnson, a physicist from England. He become so besotted with Hamilton Byrne that he declared her the new messiah.