By Tyler Wright
A new eight-part series based on Ferny Creek and Eildon based cult The Family, led by Melbourne yoga teacher Anne Hamilton-Byrne, has brought film crew and stars alike to the Dandenong Ranges.
The Star Mail previously reported on a documentary film ‘The Family,’ released in 2016, featuring interviews with members of the sect who were born into the group or acquired through what were believed to be adoption scams.
The children, isolated from the outside world and dressed identically, are said to have been beaten, starved and injected with the drug LSD as part of abuses they suffered.
Anne is believed to have brainwashed cult members into believing she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and operated mostly out of Lake Eildon and from a house on Belgrave-Ferny Creek Road throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s.
New miniseries ‘The Clearing’ is set to be released on Disney + and is based on J.P. Pomare’s novel ‘In the Clearing;’ presenting a fictionalised interpretation of The Family.
The psychological thriller will feature a star-studded cast including Teresa Palmer, Guy Pearce and Claudia Karvan.
Marquita Telford, owner of Olinda gourmet grocery store ‘Rubies and Rust,’ snapped a picture with actor Teresa Palmer on Tuesday 2 August.
“She was filming one of the scenes…and [they] used our doorway,” Marquita said.
“She came in, but because she was filming we only had two seconds for her to chat.
She was lovely and very happy for me to snap a selfie of me and a couple of other photos that I got of her.”
Marquita said the crew filmed on the street from 7:00am in the morning leading to some traffic blockages, and had been filming on the mountain for a couple of weeks.
It is believed production also filmed at Dudley’s restaurant in Olinda.
This comes weeks after crews were spotting filming the adaptation of Jane Harper’s novel ‘Force of Nature,’ starring Eric Bana and Deboraa-Lee Furness, in the Dandenong Ranges.
Anne Hamilton-Byrne died in a suburban Melbourne nursing home on 13 June 2019, and was never charged with anything more than $5000 in fines for frauds.
The Family sect she led with husband Bill Hamilton-Byrne ran from 1963 to 1987 before it was shut down due to a police raid.
The Star Mail previously reported Anne’s net worth was estimated to be about $10 million.
In the last years of her life, Anne’s condition meant she was unable to face further court action by cult survivors.
