{"id":490446,"date":"2026-01-03T23:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/490446\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T23:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:01:18","slug":"fact-or-fiction-did-infamous-child-killers-spark-the-end-of-sydneys-macdonaldtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/490446\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact or fiction: Did infamous child killers spark the end of Sydney’s Macdonaldtown?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is an urban legend that has existed in Sydney for decades \u2014 did the scandal of an infamous serial killer couple wipe an inner-city suburb from the modern-day map?<\/p>\n

The rumours surrounding Macdonaldtown have long swirled about what happened to the burgeoning borough, but the truth has never been easy to find.<\/p>\n

Today the only remnants of its existence are the obscure train station one stop before Newtown and a few scattered plaques in Erskineville.<\/p>\n

But in the early 1890s a scandal earned it infamy across the country.<\/p>\n

The grim discovery\"Erskineville<\/p>\n

Where the “baby farmer” house in Erskineville once stood, before it was knocked down in 1920 and rebuilt. (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)<\/p>\n

The story goes that Sydney’s early town planners had opted to merge the suburb of Macdonaldtown into Erskineville after it became synonymous with the “Macdonaldtown baby farmers”.<\/p>\n

The case was equal parts horrific and unbelievable \u2014 a suburban Sydney couple had been fostering unwanted children for money and then killing them to make room for more.<\/p>\n

The “baby farmers” as they came to be known were Sarah Makin and her husband John Makin.<\/p>\n

Their crimes were uncovered in October 1892 at their Burren Street, Macdonaldtown home when workers digging to connect a pipe uncovered human remains.<\/p>\n

\"Macdonaldtown<\/p>\n

Headshot of Sarah and John Makin. (Supplied: Museums of History NSW)<\/p>\n

The remains of seven infants were found in the yard of the Macdonaldtown property, with police eventually locating the remains of 15 infants total.<\/p>\n

What followed was a media frenzy, a high-stakes criminal trial and it would end with a hangman’s noose.<\/p>\n

At least for one of them, Sarah Makin was spared a death sentence while her husband John was hanged on August 16, 1893 in Darlinghurst.<\/p>\n

Sarah Makin was eventually released from prison in 1911 and died in 1918 at the age of 72.<\/p>\n

Was the suburb renaming caused by scandal or mere bureaucracy?\"sarah<\/p>\n

Records showing Sarah Makin’s death sentence was “commuted”. (Supplied: Museums of History NSW)<\/p>\n

What followed was either a systemic attempt by the government to cleanse the neighbourhood of a lingering bad reputation or a simple town planning change.<\/p>\n

The suspicions mostly trace back to the act to rename Macdonaldtown to Erskineville passing the NSW parliament in March 1893, five months after the bodies were found.<\/p>\n

While the timing may raise eyebrows, the theory that Sarah and John Makin sparked the name change almost falls apart when looking at newspaper archives from the era.<\/p>\n

A notice in the Evening News points to the Macdonaldtown Council proposing a name change months before the infants’ bodies were located.<\/p>\n

\"Erskineville<\/p>\n

Macdonaldtown, aka modern day Erskineville, where minimal sign of the former suburb or its scandalous past remains. (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)<\/p>\n

“Changing the name as suggested would increase property value by at least 5 per cent,” the notice claims.<\/p>\n

So can the urban legend surrounding Macdonaldtown finally be put to rest?<\/p>\n

“I think it is a long bow that has been drawn over the years,” city historian at the City of Sydney Laila Ellmoos told the ABC.<\/p>\n

A changing moral compass<\/p>\n

While the Makin case caused uproar in the 1890s, the practice of “baby farming” was not uncommon.<\/p>\n

Pregnant, unmarried women were often paying to give up their children at the time, Ms Ellmoos said.<\/p>\n

“It’s something to do with the changing moral compass at the time,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Something changed in society because there was a case similar not long before.”<\/p>\n

\"Erskineville<\/p>\n

Today one of the only reminders of the “baby farmer” suburb is the quaint train station baring its name. (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)<\/p>\n

Ellen Batts went on trial for a series of “baby farm” murders in Woollahra three years prior to the Makin case, but received scant coverage.<\/p>\n

“It’s more specific to what was happening more broadly at the time and the dialogue about caring for children,” Ms Ellmoos said.<\/p>\n

“There was the child protection act not long after and [coverage of] the Makins was the impetus for this.”<\/p>\n

When asked whether it was a case of myth busted, Ms Ellmoos was in no doubt.<\/p>\n

“I think it is,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is an urban legend that has existed in Sydney for decades \u2014 did the scandal of an…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":490447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,221196,221204,221206,221198,221195,221202,221205,221200,221201,221203,50,221197,13048,221199],"class_list":{"0":"post-490446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-baby-farmers","10":"tag-burren-street","11":"tag-city-of-sydney-laila-ellmoos","12":"tag-john-makin","13":"tag-macdonaldtown","14":"tag-macdonaldtown-baby-farmers","15":"tag-macdonaldtown-council","16":"tag-macdonaldtown-history","17":"tag-macdonaldtown-murders","18":"tag-macdonaldtown-serial-killer","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-sarah-makin","21":"tag-sydney","22":"tag-sydney-suburb-macdonaldtown"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115833660126401214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}