Wieambilla massacre inquest: Neighbour Alan Dare’s last words revealed

The last moments of a neighbour who died along with two police officers in the Wieambilla massacre have been detailed at an inquest into the tragedy.

Wieambilla victim Alan Dare’s last words were “what happened?” – spoken moments after he collapsed to the ground from a gunshot wound to the chest, his friend and neighbour has revealed.

Giving evidence at an inquest into the Wieambilla massacre, long-time local Victor Lewis detailed how he and Mr Dare had gone to investigate explosions and fires at a nearby property on Wains Rd when Mr Dare was suddenly gunned down.

The inquest heard a triple-0 call taker had told Mr Dare’s wife Kerry she “absolutely advised against” approaching the property but did not reveal an active-shooter incident was unfolding.

Mr Dare, 58, was shot an hour after conspiracy theorists Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train ambushed a group of four police officers who arrived at their property to conduct a missing persons inquiry.

Constables Matthew Arnold, Rachel McCrow, Keely Brough and Randall Kirk visited the Trains’ property on December 12, 2022, at the request of NSW police.

Nathaniel, a former school principal, had been reported missing in Walgett but police also had an outstanding warrant for him relating to the illegal disposal of firearms.

The inquest heard the Trains, religious extremists who considered police to be devils and demons, fired from sniper hides, killing Constable Arnold within two minutes of the officers entering the property. Constable McCrow was murdered minutes later.

Constables Kirk and Brough managed to escape. All three Trains were later killed by specialist police after a lengthy shootout.

The inquest heard Mr Dare filmed his own death, having taken out his phone to record when he and Mr Lewis discovered a car on fire at the front gate of the Wains Rd property.

Two Triple-0 recordings played to the court captured Mrs Dare reporting that they could see fires, thick black smoke and hear explosions coming from a neighbouring property.

“We’re hearing what we’re thinking is gunshots and now we’ve got like electrical burning,” Mrs Dare told the operator.

“There’s been people with gunshots across the road for about half an hour or so.

“But there’s been two big bangs in the last 10 minutes.”

In the first recording, Mrs Dare explained her husband Alan was taking a quad bike to get a better look. He returned while she was still on the phone.

In the second recording, she told the call taker her neighbour had previously lost a house to bushfire and said the flames appeared to be coming in their direction.

“I’ve got a job on in the area, OK,” the call taker said before asking whether Mrs Dare had heard any voices or people yelling.

Mrs Dare replied that she hadn’t before explaining her husband and their neighbour planned to “investigate” closer.

“I probably wouldn’t. I’d probably just stay at home,” the call taker said.

“They’ve already lost a house in a fire,” Mrs Dare said, referring to Mr Lewis and his wife.

“I’m going to absolutely advise against that,” the call taker said again.

“I know you’ve lost houses…”

Mrs Dare told the inquest her husband had already left by the time the call taker warned her about going to the Wains Rd property.

“She should have done it quicker. He was gone. He got into the car and he left and then she said ‘I advise you not to go’. It was too late – he was gone,” she said.

She said she would have “definitely” told her husband to come back had the Triple-0 operator told her people had been shot at the Train property.

Mr Lewis told the inquest Mr Dare had arrived at the gates of Train property ahead of him.

He said they discovered the black smoke was a burning car – although neither realised at the time it was a police vehicle.

“I said to Alan, it’s not the house that’s on fire, it’s a car. Do you want to ring Triple-0?” Mr Lewis said.

Neighbour Alan Dare

He said moments later, his friend dropped to the ground.

“I knelt down beside him. He said ‘what happened?’. I looked down and he didn’t look good. I didn’t know what was wrong with him,” Mr Lewis said.

He told the court he rolled his neighbour into the recovery position and “that’s when I saw the blood on his back”.

He said it was clear to him that Mr Dare had been shot.

“Not knowing what was going on … (I decided) it was time to leave there … get away from that,” he said.

Mr Lewis admitted he was “pretty sure” Mr Dare was dead, “but I wasn’t going to pass it on to anybody because I did not know”.

He said he picked up Mr Dare’s phone and crawled back to his quad bike before making his escape.

He then drove to the Dare property to evacuate with Mrs Dare.

“I just said (Mr Dare’s) been hurt, I couldn’t say any more,” Mr Lewis said.

He told the inquest the residents in the area should have been given warnings about active shooters in the area.

“This is not a derogatory statement against police – their job is hard enough,” Mr Lewis said. “This is to make things better in the future so something like this doesn’t happen again. That’s all I want.”

Originally published as Wieambilla massacre inquest: Neighbour Alan Dare’s last words revealed