By the time most Australians heard about the shooting at Wieambilla on December 12, 2022, it was already over. What had already begun was the complicated task of piecing together exactly what had happened that day and why.
It took just six hours from the time four police officers arrived at a remote property owned by Gareth and Stacey Train to carry out a welfare check on Nathaniel Train — Gareth’s brother and Stacey’s former husband — to the conclusion of the police operation that left the trio dead. During that brief period, two police officers and the Trains’ neighbour, Alan Dare, had been killed by the Trains, and two other cops barely escaped with their lives.
The shooting, which was subsequently declared a Christian-motivated terrorist attack, has raised further questions that are set to be answered at a coronial inquest next week in Brisbane. Crikey will be covering this inquest from the courtroom.
Among the considerations are the motivations of the Trains and whether authorities should have known that the trio were a risk before they sent junior police out there.
Much has been written about the bizarre, fringe beliefs of the shooters. Gareth was a regular participant in the comment sections of obscure Australian conspiracy theory blogs and websites. He also had a YouTube and Rumble account, first uncovered by Crikey, where he posted paranoid, feverish videos up until the moments before his death — including a video in the middle of the standoff. Nathaniel had left a job after having a heart attack and refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine, before reportedly breaking through the NSW/Queensland border in a car filled with weapons.
It’s the kind of story that inspires books, podcasts and even an as-yet-unannounced Netflix documentary. But for Kerry Dare, the widow of Alan Dare, who was killed after going to investigate what was happening at the Trains’ property, the most important questions are about the police’s handling of the shooting — and whether Alan’s life could have been spared.
Alan went to the Trains’ property an hour after police were first shot. Kerry had been on the phone with emergency services after the pair had seen billows of smoke coming from the Trains’ property and was waiting to find out information. Kerry told Crikey she believes police could have warned them about what was happening, stopping Alan from making his fatal trip.
Kerry later went out the back of her property after being instructed by police. For 13 hours, she claims, she waited through the night in a hastily constructed police enclosure with little information about what was happening or the fate of her husband. She later found out Alan had been shot and killed by the Trains not long after she saw him off.
“I think the communication was bad throughout the whole process,” she told Crikey on the phone. “People didn’t know what they were supposed to do. Nobody was prepared. The specialists — well, I’d like to know where their training ground is because they weren’t prepared for anything.”
From there, Kerry claims, Queensland police continued to treat her poorly. Alan tragically captured his own death on his smartphone as he was filming what was happening. Initially, Kerry and her family were allowed to see the footage, which, she said, was reassuring to her because she knew her husband’s death wasn’t prolonged. But police subsequently took Alan’s phone for evidence for the inquest.
According to Kerry’s son, Corey, police promised to give it back prior to Alan’s funeral so his wife and son could call friends in its contact book to tell them about the ceremony. He said police kept promising to give the phone back up until the day of the funeral, when an officer arrived at the venue, moments before the ceremony, to tell him they weren’t able to give back Alan’s phone.
Kerry and Corey hope the inquest will provide some answers about police conduct through the night and into the morning, including why junior police were sent unprepared for potential violence, why the Dares weren’t immediately warned about the Trains despite their proximity to the attack, and why it took so long to recover Alan’s body.
Kerry says she hasn’t heard much from Queensland police — ”There’s an investigation going, so they’re not allowed to talk to me much, I get that” — but they’re set to hear from her. Kerry will testify at the inquest during its first week and she promises she will tell her side of the story.
