For the people of Tara, what happened just down the road casts a long shadow.<\/p>\n
It is hard to escape what happened at Wieambilla almost three years ago.<\/p>\n
Three people were murdered during what was meant to be a routine missing persons check.<\/p>\n
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Constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold were shot dead while responding to a missing persons report at Wieambilla in December 2022. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Instead, Queensland police officers Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold and Wieambilla resident Alan Dare lost their lives in an ambush.<\/p>\n
Mr Dare’s widow, Kerry Dare, said she was never leaving Wieambilla, despite her husband being killed minutes from her front door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s peaceful, it’s beautiful,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s where I decided to build my retirement and to holiday with my children and then we got stuck here during COVID and fell in love with the place.<\/p>\n
“And then he [Alan] got murdered. Where else would I be? He built my dream. Why would I go away?”<\/p>\n
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Alan Dare’s widow, Kerry Dare, says the coroner’s findings were a “big let-down”. (ABC Southern Qld: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n
Queensland Coroner Terry Ryan handed down his findings yesterday into the murders of constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold and civilian Alan Dare<\/a>, and the subsequent shooting deaths of the trio behind the attack: Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train.<\/p>\n Mr Ryan said the trio each had an “undiagnosed and untreated psychotic illness”.<\/p>\n He made 10 recommendations in total<\/a>, including several on the need for more training for Triple Zero operators, and for police to review their drone capabilities.<\/p>\n In a statement, Police Minister David Purdie said the Queensland government would consider all the recommendations, including boosting funding to a specialist threat assessment centre, and consider whether introducing mental health assessments for weapons licence applications was feasible.<\/p>\n Ms Dare said the coroner’s findings had been a “big let-down”, leaving her with many questions still unanswered.<\/p>\n “I don’t feel like [the coroner’s] done Alan justice at all. He’s the only man that could, and this is the end of it. Where do we go from here?” she said.<\/p>\n “I still need to know who shot my husband.”<\/p>\n Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train had a “shared delusional disorder” and were “intent” on killing, the coroner found. (Supplied)<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the wider community is determined not to let the events on Wains Road that day define them.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We have seen the hardest times,” said newsagent Gayle Porter in Tara, 300 kilometres west of Brisbane.<\/p>\n “We are a proud and resilient community \u2026 we have seen the best in our community, spirit, friendship and a sense of belonging.”<\/p>\n Missing persons search<\/p>\n What should have been a routine inquiry turned deadly on December 12, 2022.<\/p>\n The two constables had arrived at the Trains’ Wains Rd property in Wieambilla, along with constables Randall Kirk and Keely Brough, to follow up a missing persons inquiry into Nathaniel Train.<\/p>\n But brothers Gareth and Nathaniel Train were lying in wait after setting up an elaborate scheme to murder the police they considered to be their enemy.<\/p>\n Mr Dare was also killed after checking out smoke coming from the property in the aftermath of the attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alan Dare was shot and killed during an attack that ambushed police responders in the rural Queensland community of Wieambilla. (Supplied)<\/p>\n The coroner found the two brothers and Gareth’s wife, Stacey, had each been “psychotically unwell and driven by their beliefs”.\u00a0<\/p>\n “While end of times religious themes came central to their belief system, their psychotic disorder was underpinned by broader persecutory beliefs \u2026 including the government was evil and the police officers attending \u2026 were demons,” Mr Ryan said.<\/p>\n A town’s commitment to itself<\/p>\n Ms Porter has run the newsagency for 21 years and said she remembered Constables McCrow and Arnold fondly.<\/p>\n “The day before those two police officers were in the [newsagent] shop,” she said.<\/p>\n “I really liked them, and they were buying Tara cartoon shirts and \u2026 they were always joking and having fun.<\/p>\n “Suddenly, next day, they’re dead.”<\/p>\n Gayle Porter runs the newsagency in Tara, and is also president of the Wieambilla South Country Club. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n Ms Porter, who is also the president of the Wieambilla South Country Club, said the community’s resilience was what made it a special place to live.<\/p>\n Most weekends, residents gather in the air-conditioned club to enjoy a meal together and socialise.<\/p>\n Hungarian food was on the menu this time around, with a steady stream of locals making sure they did not miss out.\u00a0<\/p>\n Residents, including Gayle Porter, gather to enjoy a Hungarian meal together at Wieambilla South Country Club. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n But Ms Porter said the town was “sick” of the bad press from the shootings and horrific bushfires<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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