Down on the farm..... Possibly Australias worse incest case.

Just a short drive from Canberra is a small town in prime merino country. The wide main street and substantial buildings point to an era when Australia rode on the sheep's back. There are still big properties, but up in the valleys that stretch out from the town are smaller farms, used increasingly as hobby farms or boltholes for those on the fringes of society. The Colt family were in the second category. There is no suggestion they were part of a religious cult. They seemed motivated by a desire to keep below the radar of the law.

Two sisters paid a relatively modest sum for the land from a local farmer in 2009 and soon the rest of the family followed from interstate. ''The day they arrived it looked like the circus had come to town,'' says a neighbour. ''Caravans, cars filled with kids. ''

Soon after the Colts arrived they came to the attention of police and the education department for failing to send their children to school. The education authorities were unable to find the farm because it was so hidden, but a local policeman visited early on and told the mothers they had to send their children to school.

The younger ones were enrolled in a small bush school with remedial teachers, while the older children were enrolled at the high school.

Neighbours realised there was a large group living on the land, but the Colts kept to themselves and returned stock that strayed onto their property.

''Apart from the noise of the chainsaws, they didn't really worry us,'' a neighbour says. ''I knew there were children living up there, but I never heard any noise of laughing or playing.'' The family were seen in town shopping and two of the men worked for the local shire. The men also chopped down trees and sold it for firewood. The family also received money from Centrelink.

But all was not well. The children's attendance at school was patchy, several of them were rake thin and wore dirty clothes. Soon risk-of-harm reports began coming in to the Department of Family and Community Services from teachers and the local bus driver.

But it took two years before the department acted. Finally, in June 2012, the authorities visited and were met with scenes of harrowing deprivation. One police officer told colleagues she would never get over what she saw that day.

Proceedings before the Children's Court heard the family was living without permanent electricity or running water. There were no toilets and they washed in a tub. One caravan housing one group had dirt, cigarette butts and rubbish on the floor. Three children's beds were dirty and unmade, cooking facilities were very dirty and a gas barbecue was used for heating inside the confined space.

The second caravan had dirt on all surfaces and two broken windows.

A third mother slept in a tent with her daughters, while the sons slept in another. There were exposed electricity wires, chainsaws without covers, and piles of rubbish, the reports said.

The children were observed to be neglected in significant ways. Most were far behind their peers in terms of educational development and some had no formal schooling at all. Some were developmentally delayed and others showed signs of more permanent intellectual impairment.

Several of the children were unable to speak intelligibly. Their dental health was appalling and several did not know how to use a toothbrush.

The family were given a timeframe to fix up the property, but in the meantime more information emerged and the director-general of FACS decided the children needed to be removed immediately.

Since taking the children away, the authorities have uncovered an even darker picture: of intergenerational incest and child sex abuse involving children as young as five.

Away from their families, the children began exhibiting inappropriate sexual behaviour and told carers they had engaged in sexual acts with each other and watched adults having sex on the farm.

The department ordered genetic testing to clarify the status of the children. The tests showed that all but one child of the 12 removed had parents who were related or closely related.

The four mothers, Rhonda, Betty, Martha and Raylene, have disputed the genetic testing, saying it is wrong and offering the names of alternate fathers. All were either dead or unable to be located.

Older members of the family have not been tested but the judge in the Children's Court made several references to ''intergenerational incest''.

Ben_Reilly wrote:Stories like this are another reason I think it's healthier, at least psychologically, for people to live in cities.

Ben_Reilly wrote:Yeah, perhaps that was a bit unfair of me. People go weird no matter where they live; it just seems like something like this case would be far less likely to go unnoticed in an urban area ...