People who knew Ronald Train during his days living in Toowoomba joked that “no church would accept him, so he had to make his own”.
Train believed – and would later write in a book – that Freemasons “give their allegiance to Lucifer” and were “a cancer”. The constitution of his Christian Independent Fellowship (started after his physical church in Toowoomba closed and he moved interstate) says appointing women to leadership positions “will never be entertained”.
Marriage, Train has said, is “crucial to God and is crucial to society”.
Ronald’s son, Nathaniel, married his high school girlfriend Stacey Mary Christoffel in 1995 when they were both still teenagers, living in Toowoomba and attending the church.
Nathaniel and Stacey both studied to become teachers. They had two children in the years after they were married and, for a time, lived together with Nathaniel’s older brother, Gareth.
The brothers were polar opposites: “Nathaniel was cool-headed, Gareth was a hot head,” a family member said.
The same family member recalled the scandal that created a rift within the deeply religious family. The details were always kept relatively hushed, but it eventually became known that Stacey had left her husband for his brother.
Property records show the three of them – Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey – all listed as living at the same Cairns address in 2004.
Almost two decades later, they found themselves back under the same roof. Gareth Train had been enveloped by conspiracy, mistrusted authorities and was prepping the property “to survive tomorrow”. Stacey Train had walked away from her teaching job and given up her registration after refusing a Covid vaccination.
Nathaniel Train had suffered a heart attack and an apparent mental breakdown, before heading north to the property at Wieambilla. His disappearance from New South Wales brought four police constables to the gate on Monday afternoon. Two were later shot dead as was neighbour Alan Dare.
Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train died hours later in a shootout with specialist police.
Reckoning with the past
For those who knew the Train family, making sense of the Wieambilla shootings has involved more than a simple accounting for the movements and mindset of Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey in the past few years. It also involves reckoning with their past.
Family members recall Gareth being a “gun nut” and trying to force others to play with rifles as a late teenager.
“He used to keep ammunition on his floor,” one said. “This was about one or two years before the Port Arthur massacre and gun control. He has a long history with that world.”
Gareth Train became a prolific online poster in recent years, drawn to sovereign citizen and conspiracy websites; he believed Port Arthur was a “false-flag operation” and that governments were running re-education camps.
There are signs in some of his posts that he held to some of his conservative Christian upbringing.
“I am a son of Yahweh the creator God,” Gareth posted on a private forum.
“Yeshua is my King and brother. I live in this world but I am not of this world. I am not perfect and have made many mistakes in my life, I am a sinner but have been forgiven.
“I missed out on my formal education due to my critical evaluations of teaching practices and resulting conflicts. I returned to university as a mature age student and studied social welfare. In doing so I discovered the religions of education and psychology.
“I soon learned that their high priests were the same indoctrinating snakes as the church high priests.”
Stacey had no social media presence and only leaves some traces. She was the principal at a tiny community school at Proston, in the South Burnett region, and later worked in Mount Isa and Tara, where she was the head of curriculum.
A former colleague at Tara says she would have been shocked if Stacey was in a relationship with two men at the same time, given the strength of her religious views. Stacey had made it clear she would leave due to vaccination mandates.
“She didn’t go around spruiking her thoughts or anything like that, but we knew she had alternative views and was anti-vax, and there was the sense there was ‘big government interference’ and things like that,” the colleague said.
Stacey had said she was not concerned about having to resign “because they had enough money to survive for many, many years without working”.
Nathaniel had worked in Cairns and Innisfail before heading to Walgett, a remote area of New South Wales with a large Indigenous population. His new partner reportedly worked at the same school.
His mental health appears to have deteriorated since suffering a heart attack in August last year and resigning from his position as principal of the Walgett primary school.
Stacey’s colleague says she took leave from her job in Tara after Nathaniel’s heart attack. “It was really bad and she went to help him.”
Preacher’s sons ‘lost their way’
Ronald Train described his religious affiliation as “free evangelical” and he espoused a literal reading of scripture – that the original writing was “the word of God”.
In his books, he writes about run-ins with Freemasons: “I am convinced from my research and personal contact and confrontation with Freemasons that the sect of Freemasonry is a cancer within the Christian church and should never be tolerated,” he said.
“Freemasons … do not in fact worship God but instead give their allegiance to Lucifer and accordingly worship this evil angel of light.”
The constitution of his foundation, the Christian Independent Fellowship of Toowoomba, includes a statement of faith that outlines his views on marriage.
“We believe marriage between a man and woman is for life,” the document states. “We accept the scriptural teaching that God permits divorce, yet hates it. Remarriage, then, is never an option for either party whilst one or the other is still living.”
Guardian Australia reached out to Ronald Train but he did not respond. The preacher dedicates his books, all written during the last decade, to his children, their partners, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“There are five families that have been affected, mine, Stacey’s and the families of those three people who were murdered by my two boys,” he told News Corp Australia on Wednesday.
“We are asking questions, we don’t know why they did it, I cannot give you a response to why they have done what they have done. They have to be accountable for what they have done … they will be brought to justice before God.”
Ronald Train was asked on A Current Affair on Wednesday if he accepted any responsibility. “Absolutely not,” he replied.
“I can’t … those decisions were made as adults. I can’t accept responsibility for some [decision] an adult made,” he said.
“I understand why people would be critical of me. I haven’t seen them for 23 years … I’ll stand before God for what they’ve done.”
His sons had been raised with “certain beliefs, Christian beliefs” but had “lost their way” and eventually cut all ties with their parents, he said, adding that Gareth was always “obsessed” with guns.
“You don’t stop loving your children … I never stopped loving them and praying for them.”
