New Wieambilla property owners send message about respecting the lives lost

Buyers of Wieambilla property tell owner they will respect the lives lost Mon 1 Jun 2026 at 4:14pm In short: The son of two of the Wieambilla police killers says the new owners of the property are open to maintaining a memorial on the property. Aidan Train has sold the property for $190,000. What's next? Mr Train says the new owners have asked him to pass on that they will be respectful of the property and lives lost on it. The son of two of the Wieambilla police killers says the new owners of the property where two officers and a neighbour were shot dead are open to maintaining a memorial on the site. Aidan Train has spoken exclusively to the ABC, in the wake of the slain police officers' families describing the sale of the property as "an insult". Mr Train, the son of conspiracy theorists Nathaniel and Stacey Train and nephew of Gareth Train, became the legal owner of the property at Wieambilla, 300 kilometres west of Brisbane, after the December 2022 killings. "They [the new owners] indicated to me that they didn't seek to do anything controversial with the property and that they were open to a consultative approach to hosting a memorial there," Mr Train said about the sale to the buyers who wanted to remain anonymous. "They wanted me to pass on that they will be respectful of the property and the lives lost on it." Constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold and neighbour Alan Dare were murdered by Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train at the property while police were responding to a missing persons report. In the aftermath of the shootings, the three Trains were killed in a shootout with tactical police. The property has been abandoned since the murders. A small memorial to Mr Dare, built by his widow Kerry and family, remains at the property gate, near where he was killed that day when he went to investigate. Mr Train said the new owners told him they were "very happy" for the tribute to remain. He said in the years since the murders, he had been unable to properly maintain the property. He has never lived there. Mr Train said there had been trespassing and looting, water tanks had been stolen from the property and there was evidence of methamphetamine use at the property in recent years. "That property has been treated by people from outside of the community or some people from within the community with complete disdain and looting and that sort of thing has been rampant," he said. "I've been advised that, when the new buyer was cleaning things up, there was evidence of ice usage that wasn't there when police were doing their searches of the property. "It's not been in my capacity to ensure that that property is given the respect that it deserves and that the police union think it deserves. "That's been the reality for the last three years. "It needed to be moved onto someone who was motivated to care for it … I think people can make up their own minds that, you know, I wasn't doing the best job at that." The property sale settled several weeks ago for $190,000 after being advertised publicly for sale by Mr Train in February. "I don't know whether they intend to live there, but what I know is that they intend to take better care of it and be present there more than I was able to be," he said. Mr Train said he was frustrated about comments from the Queensland Police Union (QPU) about the sale, saying a contract had been agreed upon with the union in October last year, with an agreed purchase price and "everything was ready to go". But he said he heard nothing more and reached out to the union in January or February this year, advising that if there was no movement he would put the property on the open market. Mr Train said the union responded by seeking a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with him about the sale, and he told them he would not agree with an NDA until the sale was finalised. "It took them another month after I said that to make a formal offer that said they were happy to sign the next day, by which time the property was already under contract," he said. "So, they were never moving with any particular sense of urgency, at least from my perspective." Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior said the QPU had "negotiated in good faith" to purchase the property and it was "disappointing" the owner accepted another offer. "I will always believe this particular property is of special significance to police nationwide, and we, like the rest of the Queensland community, never wanted it to have any chance to become a shrine to evil by people of warped ideologies," Mr Prior said. "I hope the new owners continue to honour the sacrifice of the two young police whose blood is now soaked into that ground with dignity and respect to acknowledge their loss." In a statement at the weekend, the McCrow and Arnold families said discovering the "house of horrors" had been sold to a mystery bidder was "an insult to the memories" of Rachel, Matthew and Mr Dare.