Wieambilla shootout: ‘None of this makes sense’: small town of Tara mourns big loss

In a community of five police and 2300 people, the loss of two young officers has hit Tara, 300km west of Brisbane, like a lightning bolt.

Flowers left at Tara Police Station on Tuesday. Picture: Nev Madsen

In a community of five police and 2300 people, the loss of two young officers has hit Tara, 300km west of Brisbane, like a lightning bolt.

About 200 people gathered outside the small brick police station at 12.30pm on Tuesday for a minute’s silence to pay respect to slain constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29.

“None of this makes sense,” said David Maynard, the community member who organised the gathering. “Things have just gone wild in the town in the past few months. Let’s all get together, say our piece and say thanks to the officers still about and around and say our goodbyes to the ones that are no longer with us.”

Despite neither of the officers being in town for very long, their impact had been seen and felt. Flowers and cards were piled high along the metal fencing, with seven-year-old Noah taking the angel tree topper he made from the Christmas tree to give to them.

Constable McCrow was ­described as short in stature but full of heart. The recent graduate had arrived in the regional town only months prior, a rite of passage for many new to the force. Young and ambitious, she had just found love with a fellow police officer and ­reportedly hoped to become a ­detective with the drug squad.

Jolene Morgan had met Constable McCrow while on the wrong side of the law, but said she had shown her kindness. “She had only just come here,” she said. “Everyone in the community is very close. It’s disgusting what happened.”

Mr Maynard said he had been talking a lot to Constable Arnold recently, hoping to tee up a footy match ­between local first responders and the community. It was no secret that he was an animal lover and was said to have helped several women in town escape domestic violence situations.

The two other officers caught in the crossfire with brothers Gareth and Nathaniel Train were from Chinchilla, 70km north of Tara township.

Constable Randall Kirk, 28, left his toddler and eight-month pregnant wife at home when he went to work on Monday. He was shot in the leg in the exchange of bullets but managed to escape.

He was taken to Toowoomba Hospital where he underwent a two-hour surgery to remove the bullet and shrapnel.

Constable Keely Brough, 28, scrambled to hide in nearby bush when the shooting started. Sworn into the force eight weeks ago, she began frantically texting her loved ones in case she didn’t make it out with her life, as the brothers set the scrub alight to force her into the open or burn her alive.

She was eventually rescued by a specialist squad of 16 officers sent in to retrieve their fallen comrades.

In the small Tara pub later, patrons bellowed across tables: “You hear things like this in Sydney, not in a community like this.”

Angie Fraser-Parles and family live two properties over from where the shootout took place, through hectares of dense shrubs and bushland. They didn’t hear much of the exchange – a good thing with a seven-year-old in the house – but they were locked down for several hours as the standoff with police lasted four hours.

“Everyone is so isolated,” she said. “For a while, there were ­reports there was a person with a gun out (in the community), so we had to lock up. I have a friend in the police force on the Gold Coast so we were getting updates, but not very nice updates.”

A crime scene spanning several hectares was still taped off on Tuesday evening.