There seems to be a sort of indication of the capacity for fury in Mr Miles, in so far as he had a public and long running battle with his employer , the Margaret River High school, where he had been a teacher, and also the manager of the School farm. His idea of ecological sustainability ( which is used on our family farm, so I don't think his ideas were barmy ) and the school principal's ideas did not mesh, so Miles resigned, after 30 years of teaching , and this is where the take up of the farm with the daughter and the wife and grandkids progressed from.
I don't see any lack of finance, looking at pictures of the property, obviously the swimming pool was put in by the Miles' ,, it wasn't in the pictures of the property when it was for sale, and the place looks manicured, a big job adhered to on a daily basis, for a bloke getting on in years, but financial worries are not always the trigger.. Geoff Hunt had a 1 and 1/2 million dollar home on the drawing board ready to begin, an indicator of the real value of his present and future prospects in the wheat trade.
So maybe not money, and maybe not any sort of romantic tangle off-farm, maybe not any long running family feud, no sudden demands or ultimatums, .. maybe, just.... a long moment of crazy..
Some neighbor said, the shots were spaced far apart. a real determination, and at least 6 moving targets, unless each member of the family was in some way and at some stage separated and restrained, or incapacitated, or you know, tied up , locked down... shooting moving targets is a real skill, not gained in day, and not something that can be done without 5 people interrupting and interfering in the plan, unless they are unable to. And, although I don't know how many shots, it doesn't appear to be that he had many missed goes, no one says there was a barrage of fired shots, not the kind an automatic, or semi automatic would make, so far rifles are spoken of, and this requires ammo at hand, and loading and reloading, and particular skill at aiming and firing.
