“While the matter is currently being investigated,and respecting the sensitivities of the families involved,it would be inappropriate for the QPS to provide further comment at this time.”

The publicly available trove of footage and comment activity reveal a deeply conspiratorial and religious couple agitated by government pandemic responses andperceived injustice facing Nathaniel,fixated on police and intelligence agencies and foreshadowing,anticipating,then later appearing to admit to the police killings.

One of the accounts featured the name Daniel,which was Gareth’s middle name. The couple refer to themselves as Daniel and Jane — Stacey’s middle name — in the videos,which date back to November.

One video uploaded by Gareth’s account on November 13 features clipped footage of speeches by counter-espionage agency ASIO boss Mike Burgess in which he described the agency’s focus on threats posed by the small number of people “angry and alienated”by vaccines and COVID lockdowns.

A distorted voice then challenges the use of labels,before describing himself as a “barbarian” and a “savage”.

“And I am an extremist,” he said.

In the most recent of the YouTube videos,published at 7.39pm on Monday,before details of the confrontation emerged through the media,Gareth claimed “they came to kill us and we killed them”.

He then sought to portray the actions as self-defence “against these devils and demons” before offering a personal message to an overseas Christian conspiracy-laced account that had shared frequent recent public contact with the pair.

Another obscure scripture-dominated video posted to YouTube earlier on Monday was titled “Prepare for battle and be strangers on earth”. Commenting on one of their own videos in the days prior,the account foreshadowed violence.

“After dealing with covert agents and tactics for some time now,Daniel believes that should they choose to cross the rubicon with public state actors,our Father is giving us a clear sign,” it wrote.

This masthead has chosen to report some of the Trains’ statements,but not all,to provide an insight into their motivations and the background to this week’s tragic events.

The expanded online footprint of the group was first reported bynews websiteCrikey,and has since been independently viewed and verified by this masthead — which has chosen not to republish the videos.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Queensland police urged the media and the public not to share the material. Federal government sources said the killings had not been designated as a terrorist attack and were being treated by Queensland police as a crime.

A spokesperson for the federal eSafety Commissioner said the videos did not breach any relevant laws. YouTube confirmed the channel was removed for violating its policy on violent extremist or criminal organisations,but was not drawn on when the company became aware of it.

While police have given little formal detail about theevents and motivations of the group at Wieambilla,or what role any views they held may have played,extremism experts havereiterated warnings about the still-simmering ashes of pandemic-fuelled conspiracy communities.

Accounts bearing the 47-year-old Gareth’s name emerged on conspiracy and sovereign citizen sitesthe day after the confrontation,with comments dating to 2020 outlining a decades-long interest in a web of conspiratorial thinking and brags about previously telling “coward” police to leave his property.

Gareth’s brother Nathaniel,46,had developed a deep resentment for the NSW education system he wasonly recently part of — referenced in the new videos — before disappearing and resurfacing at the property.

Both Nathaniel and Stacey,45,had refused to get COVID-19 vaccinesmandatory for their work in schools.

The brothers’ estranged father,a preacher who established his own church in Toowoomba,toldA Current Affairthis week of their conservative Christian upbringing before they became estranged more than two decades ago.

With Matthew Knott