Residents of the town where the alleged Christchurch killer Brenton Tarrant grew up are uneasy with the global attention

At the Boundary Store, a corner shop at the northern end of Grafton, they remember the quiet boy who lived nearby. “He was a bit of a loner, but he was sweet.”

In the centre of the New South Wales town, at the newsagent’s, his face is on the front page of every Saturday paper. A woman comes in and habitually picks up the Grafton Daily Examiner. “Why do they have to go and put that on the front?” she grumbles. “That’s all we’ll ever be known for again.”

Grafton is an unremarkable Australian country town, known primarily for the late-spring bloom of its purple jacaranda trees. It is now, however, the focus of global attention after a local, Brenton Tarrant, allegedly carried out a mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 and injured scores more.

Former friends, neighbours and others have searched their memories for warning signs, hints that might have foretold his apparent radicalisation.

More than a dozen Grafton residents described Tarrant as introspective and reserved. But few could point to little other than a normal upbringing. “He [Tarrant] was certainly introverted, quiet,” a family friend said. “He could get really focused on things, like the gym. But I didn’t really think he was political or anything like that. When you think back, he did travel alone for a long, long time.”

Tarrant left Australia to travel in 2011, aged 20, shortly after his father, an elite athlete who represented Australia, died of cancer. Although he returned briefly to Grafton in 2017, catching up with former friends and visiting his mother, a popular school teacher, no one recalled any warning signs.

It appears that Tarrant was alone for most of the eight years he spent travelling, an odyssey that took him through much of Asia and Europe – Spain, Portugal, France, Romania but also the Balkans where, between 2016 and 2018, he visited historic sites and seemingly studied battles between Christians and the Ottoman empire.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brenton Tarrant’s last home in Grafton. Photograph: Andrea Falletta

Counter-terrorism authorities in Hungary have suggested Tarrant also visited there while Bosnian media have reported a 2017 trip. The video of the Christchurch attack featured a nationalist Serb song from the Bosnian war of 1992-95 that glorifies former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, convicted of genocide and war crimes against Bosnian Muslims.

Tarrant’s travels prompted a radical transformation in his outlook. A two-month window – April to May 2017 – appears notably influential. According to a “manifesto” linked to Tarrant, 7 April changed him for ever.

That day a terror attack in Stockholm, Sweden, killed five people including an 11-year-old girl. “I could no longer turn my back on the violence,” the 74-page document says. The following month the document states that Tarrant was in France during the country’s general election and became obsessed with what he termed “invaders”. An unnamed town in east France, around the size of Grafton, prompted disquiet. “I watched a stream of the invaders walk through the shopping centre’s front doors,” the document states.

Experts believe it is highly likely that Tarrant, 28, would have been influenced by the ideology of the far-right “identitarian” movement, an online grouping of literate, anti-Muslim twentysomethings that had formed in France the previous year, 2016.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A message on a billboard reflecting the views of the people of Grafton on Sunday. Photograph: Regi Varghese/Getty Images

“France is the home of identitarian ideas – he could not have avoided them at the time,” said Simon Murdoch, a researcher from anti-fascist charity Hope not Hate.

Tarrant’s document contains repeated references to the extreme ideas, language and themes espoused by the identitarian movement – or Génération Identitaire (GI). His title – The Great Replacement – reflects an identitarian trope, lamenting what they claim is the replacement of European culture with non-European.

Another of its major themes is ethnopluralism, the neo-fascist vision where regions are divided by ethnicity. “The ideology that Génération Identitaire subscribes to is writ through what he’s putting forward [in the document],” said Murdoch.

Within hours of the Christchurch killings, a group calling itself “New Zealand’s premier Identitarian movement” announced it was immediately “ceasing operations”, although there is no evidence it was linked to Tarrant. Similarly, there is no proof Tarrant was an official Identitarian member. A former prominent member told the Observer he could not recall his name cropping up, though experts say the movement’s potency lies in its capacity to disseminate extremist ideology online.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lauren Noordhof, who sells live chickens at the Saturday market in Grafton. Photograph: Andrea Falletta

In Grafton, a largely white town with an 8.7% Indigenous Australian population but no declared Muslims among its 18,600 residents, the feeling of shock has fast become a defensive instinct. Many residents are uneasy that they have now become associated with Tarrant. Most of his family and friends have closed ranks. At the town’s showgrounds, Saturday is market day for Lauren Noordhof, who sells live chickens. Like many locals, she loves Grafton.

“We have the most amazing jacaranda festival here in October; just the way the community comes behind people is just amazing. We’re a really community-oriented town.” Noordhof said she had been shocked to hear about the Christchurch attack.

“Why would you do that to someone else? All those people who aren’t going home to their loved ones tonight. But it’s not about Grafton, it’s anywhere. Why is there so much violence?”

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day. In New Zealand, the crisis support service Lifeline can be reached on 0800 543 354. In Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Irish Republic, contact Samaritans on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.