From Wieambilla to Porepunkah, violent ‘anti-government extremists’ are a growing threat

Police at Wieambilla in 2022. Political sociologist Josh Roose says both Gareth Train and ‘sovereign citizen’ Dezi Freeman were radicalised online, with the pandemic accelerating isolation and anger among disaffected people. Photograph: Jason O’Brien/AAP

When the Queensland authorities wanted to understand the motivation of the Wieambilla killers, they turned to Josh Roose.

The political sociologist and associate professor of politics at Deakin University was given access to the killers’ writings to paint a picture of the process of radicalisation that led Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train to shoot three police officers and a neighbour in cold blood in a 2022 ambush at a remote property about 350km west of Brisbane.