Books, healthy food, toilet paper and paranoia in a Wieambilla house

Off-grid living for Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train involved lots of books, plenty of toilet paper, and barricading their house ahead of a “religiously motivated terrorist attack”.

A five-week inquest into the December 2022 deaths of six people at the Trains’ remote Queensland property in the Western Downs area west of Brisbane is continuing.

It will soon explore what motivated the Trains, and the events that led up to the fatal Wieambilla shootings that shocked the nation.

However, a glimpse into the Trains’ lifestyle has already been revealed in the Brisbane Coroners Court.

Senior Sergeant Kirsty Gleeson, a forensic co-ordinator who investigated the shootings, was one of the first to form a view.

“I wouldn’t say they were very sophisticated,” she told State Coroner Terry Ryan last week.

Gareth, 47, and Nathaniel, 46, were brothers. Gareth was married to Stacey, 45, who was Nathaniel’s ex-wife.

Together they ambushed and shot dead Constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, plus neighbour Alan Dare, 58, before they were killed in a gunfight with tactical police.

It’s been described as the nation’s first domestic terror attack inspired by Christian extremist ideology.

Gleeson arrived soon afterwards at the 107-hectare property.

The eight-room house appeared to be set up for “off-grid living”, with water tanks, solar panels and no main-line electricity.

Walking into the kitchen and past the spent bullet cartridges, Gleeson found healthy food and toilet paper – lots of toilet paper.

“There was not a great deal of pre-packaged foods, a lot of non-perishable items,” she told the coroner.

“They stored a lot of toilet paper in their pantry cupboards.

“But there was, I guess you’d say, healthy living, healthy food in the kitchen.”

An item on the kitchen bench also caught Gleeson’s attention.

It was a makeshift Faraday box, a container used to block electromagnetic fields and phone signals.

There were six mobile phones inside.

Negotiators had tried to call the Trains’ mobile phones every five minutes at one stage during the six-hour police siege that followed the ambush, the inquest heard.

Attempts to negotiate with them were either ignored or answered with gunfire.

Inside the house, which had two bedrooms, there was not much furniture but plenty of reading material.

“They just had basic furnishings. There were a large number of books,” Gleeson said.

“Within the bedrooms, it was again sparsely furnished, not a great deal of personal effects within wardrobes or cupboards or drawers.

“There were a number of diaries that were located. A number of little letters, little notes throughout the house.”

Books were also found at one of the property’s other features – the main sniper hideout.

Located almost 200 metres down the dirt driveway, it consisted of a tent with a double mattress.

A copy of The Godfather novel was among the items found in the “hide”.

There was a well-worn track from the house to the sniper location, one of three “firing positions” on the property.

Other “defences” included a metal-wooden barricade across the driveway and three mirrors outside the house designed to impede the sight of intruders.

Satellite imagery revealed the sniper spots and barricade had been in place since at least October 2022 – two months before the shootings.

Evidence suggested former primary school principal Nathaniel Train was at the main “hide” and used the scope on his high-powered rifle to track four officers.

Constables Arnold and McCrow arrived with two colleagues about 4.30pm on December 12, 2022, for what they thought was a routine missing persons inquiry.

They jumped the fence. A coffee mug with “Have a Nice Day” written on it was glued to a post on the front gate.

Without warning, Arnold was shot in the chest and died.

Then McCrow was shot in the back and legs while trying to crawl to cover.

She pleaded with Gareth Train before he fatally shot her in the head at close range, the inquest heard.

The Trains started a fire to flush out the other officers, who later escaped under heavy gunfire.

Neighbour Alan Dare was fatally shot when he arrived to investigate the blaze.

About six hours later, tactical police shot the Trains dead within minutes of each other at the house after a gunfight.

“I never observed any actions by Gareth, Stacey or Nathaniel in a surrendering manner,” investigator Detective Senior Sergeant Nathan McCormack told the inquest.

“The only communication was that YouTube video [titled] Don’t be Afraid.”

Gareth and Stacey Train had shot and uploaded the YouTube video hours after the constables were killed, referring to police as “devils and demons”.

Only minutes earlier, Stacey Train emerged from the house to give the brothers cups of coffee after her husband fired at a hovering police helicopter.

At the time, police said the Trains committed a “religiously motivated terrorist attack” influenced by the fundamentalist Christian ideology of Premillennialism, believing the world would end soon.

The coroner heard Gareth Train might have had a mental illness that led to a “shared psychotic disorder” with his wife and brother.

An expert is expected to tell the inquest the Trains were experiencing “identical persecutory and religious beliefs that met the psychiatric definition for delusions”.

“COVID seems, in many ways, to be a trigger for some of the events that occurred,” counsel assisting Ruth O’Gorman told the inquest.

In March 2020, Gareth Train began to post conspiracy theories on social media that appeared to be shared by his wife.

By August, his brother adopted them, the inquest heard.

After the Trains posted the YouTube video, tactical police arrived.

Unlike the four ambushed constables, the specialist police were well aware of the looming danger.

“I thought, ‘Who shoots police and just sits and waits?’,” Superintendent Timothy Partridge told the inquest.

The Trains were all firing at police when they were shot in the head – Gareth at 10.32pm, Stacey at 10.36pm, and Nathaniel at 10.39pm.

AAP