What police found inside the Wieambilla house where trio were killed

Before they gunned down two Queensland police officers and a neighbour, the Trains had been living off the grid in a house with many books, a number of diaries and letters, and makeshift technology that could block calls to their phones.

The coronial inquest into the 2022 Wieambilla shooting by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train is in its second week and has heard evidence from police who investigated the scene after the shooting.

The Trains killed constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow when police attended the Wains Road property over a missing person report regarding Nathaniel.

Weapons found at the Trains’ Wieambilla property.

The inquest has so far heard the Trains gunned down the officers with rifles shortly after 4.30pm on December 12.

They then lit a fire in a horseshoe shape around their property to flush out two other officers, constables Randall Kirk and Keely Brough. The pair escaped under heavy gunfire.

The gunshots and fire alerted neighbour Alan Dare, who was also fatally shot by the Trains when he came to investigate.

A photo of the Trains’ property tendered to the Wieambilla inquest.

Tactical police eventually killed the Trains about 10pm after a lengthy shootout.

At the inquest on Tuesday, Senior Sergeant Kirsty Gleeson, a forensic co-ordinator who investigated the shooting, described what police found at the scene.

She said the property had eight rooms, was not connected to mains power, and had solar panels on the roof connected to inverters in the laundry.

“I wouldn’t say they were very sophisticated – there was a makeshift Faraday box on the kitchen bench, and inside that were six mobile phones,” she said.

A Faraday box can be used to block signals to phones. The inquest has heard police tried to phone the Trains several times to negotiate but they did not answer.

“They just had basic furnishings. There was a TV on top of a TV unit in the loungeroom. 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.”

Gleeson said police found a number of discharged cartridge cases inside the house.

A shotgun can be seen inside the Wieambilla house, where Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train were living.

She said a lot of non-perishable food was in the kitchen and in an Esky in one of the Trains’ vehicles.

“They stored a lot of toilet paper in the pantry cupboards, but there was, I guess you’d say, healthy living, healthy food in the kitchen,” she said.

The inquest on Tuesday heard how Special Emergency Response Team police had entered the property, with the Trains having an advantage by using hideouts and a barricade on the outer edge of the property.

SERT, using the armoured police vehicle BearCat, were also hindered by Gareth shining a hunting light in their direction as he fired at them.

The inquest heard he was the main shooter, and fired a large number of rounds at police, while his younger brother remained seated at a table in front of the house for about 40 minutes. Stacey, Gareth’s wife, remained inside most of the time.

Forensic teams found 84 Queensland Police Service discharged cartridge cases at the scene. Of those, 22 were fired from police Glock pistols, including 15 from McCrow before she was killed, and one from Kirk as he escaped. Six cartridges from the Glocks were found at a log outside the house, where Nathaniel had used Arnold’s pistol.

The armoured police BearCat, used by the tactical response team that eventually killed the Trains, came under fire.

There were 116 discharged cartridges found at the scene, which did not belong to police.

Detective Senior Sergeant Nathan McCormack told the inquest two Polair helicopters at the scene were fitted with a system that could transmit aerial footage to officers on the ground to help with their response.

However, he said it was not available that day. Instead, screenshots were taken from the Polair vision and passed on to commanders.

McCormack said the teams also had to change their analog radio system because it had been compromised, with the Trains in possession of Arnold and McCrow’s police radios.

Senior Sergeant Cameron Bourke, who gave the approval for the second police helicopter to be sent, said police had since sought information from the private industry to determine what was the best technology to ensure “we don’t have a point of failure like this again”.

The inquest heard a dog was killed during the shooting, while another dog was found alive running in and out of the house when officers secured the area.

The inquest continues.