It was supposed to be a missing person search.
When four police from the Tara and Chinchilla stations in western Queensland were sent to 251 Wains Road, Wieambilla, at 4.30pm on 12 December 2022, they had no idea what they’d find.
The Queensland police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, later said the officers “did not stand a chance”.
According to police it appeared to be a prepared ambush by three conspiracy theorists. Two cops, Constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were shot and wounded before being killed by their assailants. Police said the trio lit a fire to flush out another officer and gunned down a civilian neighbour, Alan Dare, who is believed to have come on to the property to put out the fire.
That evening, after a six-hour siege, the police Special Emergency Response Team stormed the property and killed all three assailants: Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train.
Police have labelled the incident Australia’s first terrorist attack motivated by extremist Christian ideology. They believe the Trains were followers of an extreme form of “premillennialism” theology, which is the belief that Jesus Christ will return to earth in physical form to herald a thousand-year epoch of peace – but only after a period of intense suffering and strife. It is based on a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
Police argue the Trains acted as “an autonomous cell and executed a religiously motivated terrorist attack”, Queensland police deputy commissioner, Tracy Linford, said in 2023. An American conspiracy theorist, Donald Day Jr, has been charged in the United States over communications with the Trains which prosecutors claim contain “true threats” against law enforcement.
Now, 595 days later, a Queensland court will sit for the first day of a month-long inquest, charged with uncovering what happened at 251 Wains Road, Wieambilla on 12 December 2022. It will be held in Brisbane.
The Queensland state coroner, Terry Ryan, has been granted a very broad terms of reference, with nine specific questions to be answered including:
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Who fired the shots that killed Constables Arnold and McCrow and who killed Alan Dare.
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Whether their six guns were acquired lawfully and how they were acquired.
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Whether the police were adequately trained and equipped.
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The circumstances that led the four police to attend the property and why they did so at that time and day.
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How Nathaniel Train made unlawful entry into Queensland at Talwood in December 2021 and the adequacy of the subsequent police investigation and whether NSW police acted in accordance with relevant policies regarding a missing person’s report issued for him.
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A variety of other questions around the police response, including its communications system and whether changes to policies and procedures could reduce the likelihood of deaths occurring in similar circumstances in the future.
The inquest is scheduled to sit from 29 July to 30 August, and there are extensive suppression orders in place.
One of the key issues will be whether police ought to have better monitored the trio, and whether the attending cops should have been better warned about them.
Nathaniel Train left a job as the principal of Walgett school in western New South Wales over his conspiracist opposition to Covid-19 vaccination mandates.
Stacey had been reportedly married to Nathaniel but left him for Gareth, his brother.
Police said Nathan had a gun licence which had been suspended when he dumped several weapons while travelling from NSW to Queensland in violation of a pandemic-era border closure. There was a warrant out for his arrest at the time of the ambush.
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Gareth posted extensively online including extremist contents against governments and claims the Port Arthur massacre was faked. Gareth and Stacey posted a chilling video on YouTube after killing the police.
The coroner has conducted extensive pre-inquest investigation, including a site visit to the property. He has also reportedly reviewed the diaries, online activities and six years of phone data in a bid to understand how they became radicalised and to identify any potential associates.
An earlier pre-inquest conference heard that evidence is expected to contain interviews, walk-throughs, statements from 152 witnesses and forensic examinations.
Fourteen parties will be represented at the inquest, including the NSW police commissioner.
The first day will be taken up by an opening statement by counsel assisting followed by the first witness, a police officer. There are 69 named witnesses currently scheduled to give evidence, mostly police.
Police have also seized a dizzying amount of additional evidence including memory cards, cameras, items of clothing, computer equipment, tools, bags, knives and weapons, including firearms and ammunition.
There are a number of non-publication orders in place.
A coronial inquest is a routine legal process which can be called regarding any death, though an inquest hearing will take place only under specific circumstances.
It is not designed to lead to a conviction, but to recommendations for government that are intended to prevent a death under the same circumstances again. The coroner is also required to make findings as to the cause of death, and the identity of the person who died, among others.
The process is more informal than for other court proceedings and the rules of evidence do not apply. There is no jury.