A row of reporters were lined up outside Brisbane’s Magistrates Court for their live television crosses for hours before the inquest into the Wieambilla attack was set to begin.
They repeated variations of the same lines, promising viewers that the next few weeks will reveal answers to questions that have haunted survivors, family members, police and the public for years: how could something like this happen?
Over the next month here in Court 4, Queensland’s state coroner Terry Ryan will preside over a probe into the deaths of police officers Constable Matthew Arnold, Rachel McCrow and a neighbour, Alan Dare, at the hands of Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train on a remote property in regional Queensland on December 12, 2022.
Like any headline-making case, there was a surprisingly chipper mood among the small pods of people — lawyers, police, witnesses, journalists, some combination of the four — who huddled outside of the courtroom waiting for the hearing to start. Earlier, the mother of slain officer Rachel McCrow gave a short statement to the media scrum.
Every time there was an announcement over the loudspeakers, the crowd quietened. Turns out there were technical difficulties. One journalist whispered that they’d heard they tested the room twice over the weekend, all to no avail. Once inside the courtroom, a hush fell. Such is the interest in the inquest that an overflow room next door, Court 5, was opened to screen a livestream.
Today, there will be an opening statement from counsel assisting Ruth O’Gorman KC, and then police witnesses will speak in the afternoon. O’Gorman told the overflow room that the address is expected to take an hour and a half and will include some videos.
Among the 23 questions listed for inquiry include why police repeatedly visited the Trains’ premises, how the police and neighbour Alan Dare were killed, the preparedness of the police for what happened in the lead up to and during the attack, how the Trains were killed, what their motivations were and what could have been done to avoid the deaths.
Some of these questions have already been fleshed out by the authorities and the media. According to Queensland Police in February last year, both the state agency and ASIO had come to “identical conclusions” that the Trains’ attack was an act of politically motivated violence inspired by an extreme form of the Christian doomsday ideology known as premillennialism.
Media reporting, including Crikey’s, found Gareth Train’s digital footprint shortly after the attack, which suggested a preoccupation with COVID-19 and anti-government conspiracy theories. The Trains’ father, evangelical preacher Ron Train, reportedly rejected the idea the trio were motivated by their Christian beliefs.
