Queensland Police Union Journal’s touching tribute to officers killed in Wieambilla shooting
Family of the two police officers killed at Wieambilla have opened up about the loss of their precious loved ones, along with colleagues who reveal some of the final days of Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow’s lives.
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New details have been revealed about the Wieambilla shooting in a touching tribute to Constable Rachel McCrow and Constable Matthew Arnold to honour their lives.
A series of heartfelt admissions were published in a commemorative edition of the Queensland Police Union Journal, edited by Darren Curtis, which was released this week.
Contributors included both Constable Arnold and Constable McCrow’s families, Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll, Police Minister Mark Ryan, Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers and other union representatives, and members of the Tara community.
The Courier-Mail has included some heart wrenching excerpts delow, including new details about the pair’s final moments, inside details about the operation and how the officers will be remembered by their families.
The Arnold family
The Arnold kids were a success of IVF and parents Sue and Terry had been going through treatments for five years and this was their last attempt.
If it failed they were content to be the favourite aunty and uncle to any future nieces and nephews but the news from their specialist changed all that.
Terry said, “The doctor says ‘congratulations!’ You’re pregnant and it looks like twins!’ We have a later scan and I’m looking at these flashing lights on my monitor and I’m told they’re heartbeats. I look closer and I count three flashes.”
Sue chimes in, “The doctor then asks, how many did I tell you, you were having and I quickly replied two! He replies ‘well welcome to number three.’
“He then says ‘I’d better take your blood pressure.’ Terry sticks his arm out only to be told, ‘not you mate, your wife!’
“We were on the verge of giving up on kids and all of sudden we had three. It was ridiculous zero to 300 in a heartbeat.”
The triplets were born at 32-and-a-half weeks without complications, Matt first weighing 1540g, Hayley at 1300g and James was the third delivery weighing 1660 grams.
Matt may have arrived two minutes earlier than his sister and a little bit ahead of his brother but it could’ve been by years as they grew up. Hayley said, “Matt of course was always the oldest and he constantly played on that and he let everyone know it.”
Matt and James attended St Laurence’s College at South Brisbane from Year 5. Both boys did well academically and loved their sport. Matt however developed a philosophy of doing just enough to get by with the study instead preferring team sports.
Terry said, “Matt was always talented sporting wise, not a stand out at first but what he was able to do was learn very quickly. He was playing cricket one day in the Under 13s and it all just clicked. He took 20 runs off a rep bowler’s over. A week later he scores 105 off 53 balls and never looked like getting out, I knew the light bulb had gone off he’d worked out timing and could anticipate a bowler.
“The next summer season comes around and I’m thinking Matt is going to have a cracking year with the bat but he says dad I want to play volleyball. Matt started in the 8Cs, the lowest team at St Laurence’s volleyball.”
Sue adds, “The story is retold every year at the school after the teams have been graded and Matt’s journey has become legendary. Every year the selectors tell all the kids who do not make the top teams, not to be disappointed or to give up. They are reminded that in 2013 the St Laurence’s Sportsman of the Year, Matt Arnold, played for the Australian schoolboys volleyball team after starting in the lowest grade at the school.”
Through determination Matt became captain of the Firsts Volleyball team, won a premiership, played for Queensland Schools Rep Teams, had a Queensland Academy of Sport scholarship and made the Australian Volleyball Test Team.
During Year 7 was the first time Matt’s parents heard him talk about his desire to be a police officer. He mentioned it, but didn’t harp on about it. With Year 12 complete Matt did a bit of labouring for a company doing refurbishments on RSL retirement homes.
It took Matt a while to get uni and a gap year out of his system but eventually he came home one night and told his parents he’d decided to follow his dream and join the QPS.
The process took months, was frustrating and didn’t go to plan.
Matt didn’t pass the no-longer-used Wunderlic psychometric testing and had to cool his ambition for another 12 months. However on the exact day he could reapply, he re-sat the test and felt confident he had performed better.
But he still needed a job and took on a bit of security work. There were very few shifts at pubs dealing with drunks and people with bad attitudes as the bosses and clients identified Matt with his physique and attitude was a perfect fit to work high end venues.
Finally he received confirmation he had been accepted to the Oxley Academy and would begin his recruit class in a few weeks. Sister Hayley said, “He was so proud that day he sent all of us copies of his acceptance letter.”
James describes Matt as, “The kind of person who took the lead and protected all those behind him. He was the kind of leader you follow with complete loyalty and trust, because you knew that whatever happened, he was there for you and had your back.”
That’s part of the reason Terry believed his son was involved in the incident at Wieambilla from the moment the family heard about it.
“There were only four police at Tara so I knew Matt would be at the front of this. Hayley only confirmed it for me with what she revealed.”
Hayley and Matt exchanged fitness and activity data through their watches. When Matt wasn’t responding to text messages and phone calls, Hayley turned to the technology that was answering, “His watch said he’d only walked seven thousand steps that day and it showed he was not moving, which was strange considering what was going on out there.
“I initially hoped it was a sync problem between his watch, phone and the towers but every-time I refreshed there were no more steps or activity. I could see messages we were sending were getting to him so he had reception.”
Hayley didn’t want to admit it but she knew her brother was one of the officers who had been murdered. A few hours later the dreaded knock at the door from some senior police confirmed their fears.
Matt’s mother Sue said, “That is something I will never forget. I remember saying ‘no this cannot be right’, they were here to tell me Matt had been injured but it’s a nightmare with the opening of that door. Since then I’ve had dreams that I was standing behind Matt watching him walk up that driveway and I was calling out to him to stop. But now my dreams are of opening the door and recalling the look on Inspector Mick Coulson’s face. That’s what I dream of now.”
QPU President Ian Leavers was the first person to talk to the family after they received confirmation of Matt’s death from senior police. During the late night phone call Ian laid out what would happen in the hours ahead and how the QPU would be there alongside them, not just that night but months and years ahead.
Sue was full of praise for Ian and the assistance provided to the Arnold family, “The way the union have looked after us and made sure we are ok, I don’t think we could have asked for anything better. There’s always been someone for us to talk to and go ask questions of. I don’t know any other union that does that. It’s been a very surreal experience almost how well we’ve been looked after.”
Hayley said, “If there’s one thing that’s come out of this, it’s join the union, the Police Union have set a standard and are phenomenal.”
Matt’s father Terry said, “I would tell every recruit or officer out there, get a will in order please, Matt didn’t have one. The union does it for free.”
Over the following days the family had thought Matt’s funeral would be at the auditorium at St Laurence’s school. It was only during a chat with the police chaplain they started to get an idea that thousands of police wanted to attend.
Terry said, “It wasn’t really dawning on us, we were in our own bubble thinking about our little Matty. This was so much bigger than us and we were having trouble wrapping our heads around that.”
When the chaplain said be prepared for at least 5000 police we were stunned.” That night Sue tossed and turned about whether to expose her family to such intensity during their grieving but she remembered something Matt would always say “go big or go home”.
James said that if he’d asked Matt what to do in this situation, his answer would have been, “just do both”, so through the chaplains, the Arnolds and McCrows agreed on a combined funeral followed by private services.
Hayley said, “A police ceremony just made sense with the both of them together. They were good mates and after we could both have private ceremonies. We all want Matt and Rachel’s names to be remembered. We were so proud the rest of the world got to hear stories about them.”
The Arnold family said the presence of the Prime Minister, the Premier and police unions from all around Australia at the combined funeral service made them realise how significant the ceremony was.
They appreciated that politics was forgotten for a few hours and everyone saw the pollies genuinely upset and human, that was when the family truly understood the deaths of Matt, Rachel and Alan Dare rattled the entire country. Part of the emotional response came from looking at the photos of Matt and Rachel. They were young, happy, confident and many police believe they could see themselves, a partner or relative in those images.
There was no bias from Hayley when she said, “You look at them and you go, these are nice people.” Sue believes the photos conveyed something beyond their youth, “You could tell they came from good families, who clearly loved them, families who supported them, families who considered family was important and that’s how they were raised and that you treated people with kindness.
“Matt always had a big smile and was kind, he really was charm personified and he used it. No matter where you were if Matt was there you felt safe.”
Matt had a couple of important loves in his life outside of family, his dog Tana and his Blue Ford Ranger. He was in the process of adding all sorts of accessories and attachments so he could take his country and beach adventures to a new level.
The family would often be amused by large boxes delivered by courier to their home followed by a text message from Matt that it was just car parts and he’d be home soon to have them fitted.
Matt’s ultimate plan was to have the Ranger fitted out for a trip to the Cape, camping at the northern most tip of Australia. Sue and Terry cannot part with the ute, for them the interior still has a smell that links them with their son.
On the day of the ambush Matt already had the Ranger packed, at the end of shift the next day he was heading home to Brisbane for Christmas and wouldn’t return to Tara until Boxing Day before a stint with the Child Protection Unit in Logan.
His tenure for Tara literally was just about complete. Sue said, “He had maybe five days left in Tara and he had decided if he loved child protection that would be where he would head next. Matt openly admitted his time at Dalby and Tara taught him how to be a police officer.”
Terry said, “We have lost a loving son, brother, and friend. A guy who would do anything for his family, except keep his room tidy. We have lost a young man with so much potential. A man fortunate enough to find his true calling in life. We cannot envision Matt having any other career. We have lost a broad-smiling, cheeky, yet charming young man with an undeniable future.
“We recently met with Matt’s facilitators at the police academy. They echoed all that his high school teachers told us. The kid that sits up the back and loves a chat yet never got into trouble because he was so charming. He loved to make his peers and teachers laugh.
“Yet as much as Matt loved to joke around, there was a time and place for everything, and he took his work very seriously. We now understand with his blue family if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us.”
Mother Sue said, “Matt really was honoured to be a police officer. I think the love shown for Rach and Matt will stay with us forever, the fact two relatively unknown young police officers who were just doing their job with so much potential, did their general duties work with a passion and so many police turned out for them at the funeral came to show how much they loved Matt even though they didn’t know him. The blue family is really something.”
When it comes to considering the loss of Matt, his sister Hayley was direct and to the point, “We have lost a big man, a protector, a kind person, someone who we always felt safe with, when he hugged you he really wrapped you up in his arms. I’ve lost a third of myself.”
The Arnold family know they are now in for a whole series of firsts. The first Christmas and the triplets’ 27th birthdays have both passed. At Christmas the family had a late lunch with Matt at the cemetery, with his yearly request of baked ham.
Macca’s was Matt’s birthday food of choice, so the family visited him for breakfast that day. There are many more anniversaries and special family occasions to follow. They know it won’t be easy, in fact each one is going to bring on a new round of heartache. However they are always thinking of others.
The family want police to remain careful, put faith in their training and know the community appreciate the job you do.
Terry said, “Thank you for your service are words we probably never really understood, until recently when the meaning certainly became apparent. Therefore, we’d like to say to all members of the QPS, past present and future, thank you for your service.
“During our private ceremony we thanked the QPS and QPU for all they had done up until that point. We would like to acknowledge and thank everyone for the continued support we are receiving.
“It has become apparent to us just how big and supportive the blue family really is to all its members and their families in times of need.
“To Matt’s blue brothers and sisters who brought him home, and to the SERT team, we remain in awe of your bravery. To all current serving officers and recruits in training … remember why you joined, keep making a difference and continue to protect all in need. You are all needed more than ever.”
The McCrow family
The McCrow family are intensely proud of Rachel and the things she achieved. There’s a desire for Rachel and Matt to be remembered for the wonderful people they were. The experiences from those who worked alongside Constable McCrow have been welcomed.
“The stories about her short police life are very positive, everything from the way she completed reports through to her attitude. She was breaking down the culture in Tara of people not talking about domestic violence, she was invested in following up with the victims and encouraging them to talk.”
Like many police, Rachel didn’t always share everything with family about her interactions while at work. “She didn’t talk a lot about her police life but she was proud of the fact she was about to be ‘the adopt a cop’ for a local school in 2023.”
“She wasn’t keen to go to Tara and I wasn’t keen on her being there, because we had heard these stories about people with guns out there and the whole time she was there that’s what I was worried about..”
It took 18 months for Rachel to progress through the recruitment process and receive confirmation she had a place on a course at the Townsville Academy. It meant a move away from Brisbane but ‘she was ambitious and competitive’.
“Rachel was thankful for the opportunity because she knew other people who had not got in.”
Rachel had travelled extensively with her family to the USA, UK and Europe before being accepted into the QPS, so living away from home wouldn’t be an issue.
She rapidly made friends both with her course mates but also with those around her.
A card arrived recently at the family home and the sympathy was appreciated but it also told another story that made them smile.
“We received a card from the cleaning lady at the Townsville Academy. The pair had struck up a friendship while Rachel was there and on Rachel’s graduation day Rachel insisted on having photos with her, it was a must. Turns out every day she would chat to this lady and called ‘her recruit mum’. Rachel had a personality where everyone thought they were her best friend.”
There was also a tough edge to recruit McCrow. “She was so tiny but when she would come home during any breaks in the course she would practice the moves she had learnt on some of the biggest blokes we know. She could do it all but I was always worried for her, scared for her as a future police officer.”
Rachel graduated in June 2021 and most of her police friends really only knew her for 18 months so it’s clear she made a brilliant and lasting impact, however her ability to enliven those around her started many years earlier.
At the family’s private funeral service, family members remarked on the impact she had with others. “That really shone through at the chapel because she had all these different groups who all thought of her as their best friend. She had the brightest personality and everyone got along with her.”
There was one friendship that almost resembled something you would see with two inseparable sisters.
Jess and Rachel met in the early days at school. They exchanged names and pretty much became friends for life. For over 20 years the two shared jokes, stories and unforgettable moments. The bond continued after Jess was married, the two knew they could talk to each other about anything and at any time of the day. The loss of Rachel has been tough on Jess and her family.
“She was a larrikin but she just made everyone feel comfortable. She never had any judgment about anyone, she gave everyone comfort and spark. Growing up she got away with so much because she was this beautiful little girl with blonde hair and she just gave a cheeky smile and everyone’s heart melted and said ‘no worries Rachel you are fine.’ With her friendships she was true to everyone, she always wanted to have fun. She made everyone’s life happy.”
Rachel finished her secondary schooling at GCC in 2010 and started her Justice Course in 2011. Originally it was a dual degree but Rachel pruned the other courses off because she always wanted to do Justice. She liked the youth justice side of her course but also developed a passion to assist DV victims. Rachel completed the course and graduated but took time off to travel and explore Canada.
Later Rachel worked at the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission, in the crime hearings and legal section before switching to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission in 2020.
Rachel’s mother Judy cherishes memories of her daughter coming home from her various travels or work throwing her arms around her mum, kissing her on the cheek and arranging pedicures for them both. “Often she would just come and sit down beside me, give me a hug and say I love you.
“She did the same thing with my mum Beryl. They also shared a special bond. She had so much to give, lots of love and didn’t mind sharing it or expressing it with us.”
The fatherly figure in her life for the past five years has been her mum’s partner Andy Keetley. From the first time Rachel and Andy met there was an easiness that became a solid friendship.
The McCrow girls also indulged in an enthusiasm for board games. The evening sessions could be quite intense, tricks were employed to perhaps throw one another off their game, highlight a strategic loss or just bathe in the joy of a win.
There was a love of the outdoors, kayaking particularly, snorkelling on Lady Musgrave Island was a favourite, walking the dogs in the rain, even barefoot bowls. That’s how they celebrated Rachel’s 29th birthday in August. It was a very happy day and the photos from the ‘day on the greens’ are very special. Samantha and Rachel always had plenty of time for each other. During school years they mixed in different circles but they had a friendship beyond being sisters.
But it wasn’t always perfect. “The bond between Rachel and Samantha was tight. Every time they were home together they would fight like sisters but then it would all be forgotten and Rachel would be staying over at her sister’s place. They were really, really close. They were sisters and best friends. Samantha is shattered still. We will always be shattered.”
The McCrow and Arnold families were obviously in an emotional whirlwind in the days after the Wieambilla incident however both families came to a natural realisation that there should be a combined funeral service to honour the police service of their children and the incredible sacrifice that had been made.
“The thought of a combined funeral was respectful of both of them, they died together, they were mates. I know the police service was deeply grieving, it just fit well having the funeral service together.”
“We didn’t get a sense of how many police were there until we were in the motorcade leaving. That told us about the importance of their deaths and how much all police were hurting from it. Not many of them would have known Rachel and Matt but they were all united by the job they did, working together supporting each other other to protect and serve Queensland communities.”
The family asked Mell and Freddy in their eulogies to not make it all about police officer Rachel, but to make sure they told everyone about the beautiful person she was.
They both spoke from the heart, Freddy graduated with Rachel and Mell shared a house with Rachel when she first moved to Dalby. The family agreed with Freddy’s sentiments that if Rachel had lived and stayed in this career she would have been a commissioned officer really quickly, “She had the drive, the skills, the passion and commitment to reach the senior ranks.”
A private funeral service was held later in the day. There were lots of police there but also groups of Rachel’s friends, showing the diversity of her life, connections and impacts.
Police chaplain Matt Goven was acknowledged for the way he conducted the service and offered words that greatly assisted the McCrow family looking to the future.
The private service, unlike the formal QPS rituals, allowed the McCrows to hug and chat with the people who were there and that was important.
They also discovered Rachel had 30,000 photos in her iCloud, lots of them were shared memories of the people at the service, the people she thought so highly of and the friends that were now showing her mother and sister so much support and comfort.
“There’s never enough time to thank everybody at a ‘celebration of life’ but the contact from Rachel’s recruit classmates at Dalby and Tara has meant a great deal,” Judy said. “We all have special thank yous to Rachel’s colleagues that have reached out, the Commissioner and Ian Leavers without him we’d be lost, financially without the QPU fund we would’ve been wrecked. It’s really helping with our future planning. The QPU have been just great and in the first week Ian rang multiple times, he’s been brilliant. The compassion shown by the union has been brilliant. The legal help from the union moving forward will be amazing to help inform positive changes.”
“I know Queensland University of Technology where Rachel completed her justice studies are planning on creating a scholarship in her honour. It will be for a student in the justice degree and there will be selection criteria centred around Rachel’s commitment to serving communities not solely academic based.”
Judy would also support a perpetual honour for another junior police officer. “People have also spoken about a lasting award with the QPS, something at least for a second year, someone who shows really good values across a range of areas, volunteer work, influencing the community around you, addressing domestic violence and youth justice. Something to further advance their training.”
During Police Remembrance Day Commemorations in 2022 Rachel took on a key role in the service held in Dalby. The opportunity to pause and reflect on those police lost on duty meant a great deal. It’s hard to believe that the next National Police Remembrance Day police across Australia will be honouring Rachel’s service. Rachel talked about having a family of her own one day. “Rachel was a beautiful person inside and out, she talked about getting married and buying a house perhaps with a granny flat for mum.”
Rachel did have a ‘fur baby’, Archie the blue heeler was her constant companion. Some of the most beautiful images of Rachel are times where she was photographed with her dog. Archie had become so much a part of the McCrow family unit that holidays could only be booked at places that were dog friendly so Archie didn’t miss out. “Archie was the runt of the litter as a pup but he was instantly her best friend. They went everywhere together, she did everything with him.” “He was her baby and they’d often cuddle on the lounge. Since Rachel’s death Archie has been surprisingly good, but the big picture from the funeral of Rachel we had it on the lounge chair where she used to sit and he’s been sleeping in front of it. He’s been sniffing around her car that’s parked in the yard. Archie was centre stage at the funeral and Rachel would have loved that, that would’ve been the biggest hoot for Rachel.
“He walked the entire honour guard. Apparently he was better behaved than the police dogs.” “Archie is so very special for us now, he’s our memory. We spend so much time throwing the ball for him and giving him cuddles all the time.“ After a career in nursing, education and bringing up two girls, when Judy McCrow speaks there’s a tone there that cannot be ignored, a voice of calm, reason and you know it has experience behind it. She wants every police officer now and even those yet to be sworn in well into the future to remember Rachel and Matt.
“The key messages would be, to be aware of the unpredictability of wearing the uniform. To every police officer in Queensland I would say be safe and be aware. Don’t ever feel overly comfortable or complacent. Have a sixth sense about you.” “As a family you will always be loved and forever in our hearts Rachel Clare McCrow.”
Tara teammates
The tiny town of Tara 100km west of Dalby is known for its biennial camel races and abundant gas fields, but it’s never really been on the desired list of assignments for police.
However Constable Matthew Arnold and Constable Rachel McCrow took an attitude that they were going to take full advantage of their posting and work hard while enjoying the camaraderie that comes from working in a small station.
In December 2022 there were four police operating from the small brick building.
Sergeant Matt Minz was the Acting Officer in Charge with three staff including Constable Craig Loveland, Constable Matthew Arnold and Constable Rachel McCrow.
The team lived in the adjoining barracks and spent not only hours working together but socialising off duty.
The constables all arrived at Tara at different times but the friendship was like they had all grown up together.
Craig Loveland said, “Matt and I shared a house and Rachel was living next door. We had just about every meal together and when you are living that closely for six months you have to be friends.
“It wouldn’t matter who I was paired up with during the roster because if you were with Matt or Rachel you knew you were in for a good shift. Every day was a fun day working with them.”
Sergeant Minz met Rachel and Matt during their first year at Dalby and said although the young constables both grew up in a city environment they adapted quickly to rural policing.
“They were the image of typical country coppers, they had the ability to talk to anyone, were very affable, empathetic police officers. On the Western Downs, for the police who serve here it’s like being part of a family relationship. In Dalby, Chinchilla and Tara we are friends who just happen to work with each other.”
Justin Drier was the Acting Sergeant OIC at Chinchilla at the time of the Wieambilla incident.
“I’ve been on the Western Downs my whole career,” he said. “Both Minzy and myself were second year constables in Tara so I can tell you how important it is to have a police family in that environment.
“You need a solid work relationship but also need to get along socially and I could tell from watching Rachel and Matt in Dalby they had developed a great work ethic. They went to Tara with a positive mindset and saw it as an opportunity to add additional skills.
“I know Rachel qualified as a roadside drug tester in that time and from what I saw she could have easily fit into a career in highway patrol. Matt I don’t think was ever stressed about anything.”
There was never any chance either Matt or Rachel would try to wiggle out of their tenure at Tara. Motivation was never an issue and the team of young constables didn’t require intense management.
Sgt Minz recalls that Rachel was a true self-starter. “The adopt a cop program had fallen by the wayside but in the last few months of 2021 Rachel took a shine to getting up to the school early in the morning, meeting the kids and teachers.
“Rachel would also participate in the program the school had to give the kids a healthy breakfast before lessons. I never had to push her to do community engagement, she was all over it.”
There were obvious signs that Rachel was developing a trend towards helping some of the most vulnerable in the community.
Sergeant Minz said: “DV and CPIU would have been an amazing fit for Rachel. She was already doing an amazing job in that space and looking out for children at risk. She dealt with a number of our repeat offenders around town and she was building relationships with them. With the high risk DV aggrieved Rachel was creating a bond of trust between them and police.”
Matt was also carving a niche that stood out to his OIC.
Sergeant Minz said, “Matt was a big guy with a terrible moustache but everyone loved him.
“He would walk in anywhere, even with some of our most difficult ‘clients’ and they’d soon be shaking his hand and take an immediate shine to him. He was a gentle giant and I think he was drawn to this job because he had an ability to protect members of the community and be there for people in need.”
Matt Arnold was making the best of barracks life off-duty. He bought a TV that stretched the entire width of the wall in his bedroom and next to his bed he had rigged up his mobile fridge/freezer so drinks were within easy reach.
The internet service wasn’t brilliant but he had worked out a way to hot spot his mobile phone so he could play late night computer games with his friends back in Brisbane. He wasn’t really doing it for the game play it was more about keeping in touch with mates.
Both Rachel and Matt had a reputation for being pranksters and always with a joke to lighten the mood when they were all dealing with intense, serious issues.
Craig Loveland says Matt came up with probably his greatest ever prank but he never had the opportunity to see the laughter it would generate.
The day before the Wieambilla incident Matt brought up rolls and rolls of Christmas paper. With the OIC on days off, Matt, Rachel and Craig took the opportunity to wrap every item in his entire office with Christmas wrap.
Craig said, “We spent hours in there, wrapping up even his pens, hanging a giant Santa suit on his wall and leaving signs that naughty elves had been at work.” Sergeant Minz said.
“They wrapped literally everything, the desk, computer, keyboard, mousepad, mouse. You name it, it had wrapping on it.”
Unfortunately Sarge didn’t see it until after Matt and Rachel were murdered, “I kept the wrapping on for probably a month afterwards, I just couldn’t take it off. They were good pranksters, amazing people to know.”
That same numbing shock was felt outside the police station walls by the broader Tara community, who swamped the complex with flowers, cards, teddy’s and whenever an officer came outside there’d be tearful hugs.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll
Katarina Carroll moved into the Commissioner’s role in July 2019 and 2022 had been a tortuous year with questions about her leadership, the ability of some of the Senior Executive Leadership Team she surrounded herself with and her performance under questioning at the Commission of Inquiry, but the anxiety created by all of those issues dissolved for her with the first phone call about the situation at Wieambilla on December 12.
The initial briefing indicated there could have been up to four officers fatally or critically injured.
Commissioner Carroll said, “I think the first thing I said out loud was please God that cannot be the case. I hoped the comms are wrong, the messaging was wrong that somehow the news is so much better than what you first receive.
“Initially I thought it was four officers lost, eventually when I found out it was two, I still hoped that somehow that message was wrong. But it wasn’t the case sadly.
Then the difficulty sets in waiting on accurate details, you are waiting a long period of time and that entire time it’s awful. When you think what the families are going through you cannot consider a worse scenario.”
One of the first calls the Commissioner made was to the QPU, “It was a very difficult first few hours, I had a lot of conversations with the union about travelling up to Chinchilla immediately or do I stay back at HQ and do the higher level media which I decided to do because there was a media frenzy around this immediately and the media knew what was happening very early so I had to get the balance right.”
While those discussions were under way, the forward commander was assembling a team of officers to volunteer to go back to the property with the intention to assist their injured colleagues or retrieve their bodies.
Sixteen local police armed with their basic firearms and ballistic equipment conducted the mercy mission.
Commissioner Carroll said the initiative may not have been written in a manual to follow but it was bold and courageous, “They are amazing, I cannot believe they did it. I understand why they did but to put their own lives at such risk is just extraordinary.
“When I look at bravery, it was beyond brave, it was extraordinary. I spoke to a lot of those people in the following couple of days and I just couldn’t do anything but thank them for what they did. They had to do that to see if those officers were still alive and to make sure they also retrieved their bodies.
“It may have been outside of protocol, they didn’t even think about their own safety but what they did was truly, truly brave. When I look at the history of this organisation for that amount of people to make that decision and what they did I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Hours later SERT continued the operation to monitor the offenders and develop a plan for their apprehension. The engagements will be the subject of a coronial review but three armed people died after exchanging gunfire with police.
The Commissioner said, “I’ve had a lot to do with SERT over the years, at one stage I was their Chief Superintendent so I know exactly how they operate, I know how good they are at making decisions and how good they are at making the right decision to take the right action. “When this was over and I saw them the next day, I thanked them for being precise in the action that they took, I thanked them for the way they went about their business. They did an excellent job in what was very, very difficult circumstances.
“Without a doubt they will face some scrutiny but I expect that in everything we do as police everyday. But when I think when people are confronted with these situations it’s easy to judge down the track, but when you are talking about decisions that have to be made within milliseconds with the information that you have at the time not many people can appreciate that, unless they’ve been in that situation.
“This was when I look at the situations like this throughout our history it was one of the most dangerous, complex situations that police have witnessed in Australia.”
Commissioner Carroll is proud of the way so many elements of the QPS came together with such purpose to co-ordinate a plan to resolve the situation at Wieambilla.
The QPU were the original advocates for the introduction of ‘body worn’ cameras and received a commitment from the Government in 2017 for the rollout of cameras to every uniformed frontline officer.
Today there are 12,200 body worn cameras issued to Queensland Police and at Wieambilla the camera’s recorded some of the most graphic and detailed evidence possible. That material has become a crucial element of the investigation.
Commissioner Carroll said, “Everything is there, it’s almost like you are a part of it. It’s almost like you can feel the fear yourself being among it, investigators have never had that before and it is such a difficult thing to see and to watch, it’s sad that our people have to endure that.”
In the following days the media were in overdrive and multiple media conferences were held and at times the Commissioner and QPU President Ian Leavers were side-by-side talking about the impacts this event was having on police. The Commissioner conceded that Ian Leavers become a point of truth for the community.
“We come at things sometimes with different perspectives and that’s important because we all have different interests in the way we represent our people. When something like this happens we are truly unified, the best we can achieve for our colleagues, the best for the organisation, the best for the families and I support heavily when the Union says we want to do this or whatever raising money etc, we all want the same outcomes and it’s important we visibly show that as well.“
Commissioner Carroll continued, “At the end of the day there are so many times even away from this issue where we are wanting to protect our people, to make sure they are well trained, make sure they have the best equipment. So under everything we predominantly want exactly the same things for our people. “There will be ongoing inquiries, there will be coronials obviously I have to sit within a lane of what I can say and when I can say it. It was the most incredibly difficult few weeks but in terms of how we worked with the Union it was so well aligned.”
The QPU moved rapidly to discuss with the Government the prospect of purchasing the entire Wieambilla property owned by the offenders. This was a concept never imagined before.
Commissioner Carroll admits the idea caught her by surprise but realised quickly Mr Leavers had received support from the Arnold and McCrow families along with the Premier.
“Ian spoke to me about it and I thought yeah, if you feel you need to own this property and it is used for good into the future, to somehow deal with what’s happened I thought that was a valid reason to put up a proposal to purchase it.
“I understand the concerns of the union and it’s an extremely valid point. It was about making sure this property that had the most tragic event take place on it for our organisation is secured to make sure that nothing like that can occur and people aren’t using it for the wrong reasons, I thought that was a very valid reason for the union to make the suggestion to purchase it.”
The Commissioner also forecast the reviews of what happened at Wieambilla will lead to reforms and potential changes to operational practices that could even start at Queensland’s police academies.
“There will always be changes to what we do operationally, there has to be, because you’ve got to learn from them.
“We really need to un-pick the information that came in, could we have treated it differently from the very outset, was it the best way of operating on that day, it may have been but I think we’ve got a lot of work into the future to look into every aspect of these peoples lives particularly over the last couple of years where we are now getting evidence about escalation, could the organisation have done anything differently but we’ve got to learn from every single aspect.”
During many moments of this interview Commissioner Carroll became emotional and fought back tears, not always with success.
Part of that reason is she believes she has a very strong bond with the police she leads, there’s a connection about wanting them to all be safe and for many of the younger officers the instinct is motherly, not in a patronising way but a view they are all like her children.
Commissioner Carroll was asked in the years ahead even after she has left the role of Commissioner of Police what will be her thoughts when she again sees the photos of 26-year-old Matthew Arnold and 29-year-old Rachel McCrow.
“What beautiful, amazing young people that had the world at their feet and could’ve gone on to achieve amazing things and they should not have died that way at the hands of those people. They should still be here so they could live to their potential and enjoy a great future.”
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