Rural idyll hides family tragedy
The view of Watch Hill is idyllic. An isolated farmhouse about one kilometre from Boree Creek Rd, bright yellow canola crops on one side of the private dirt road into the property, wheat crops on the other.
Clothes still hang on the Hills Hoist. A children's swing sits vacant on the back lawn.
The only sign of the tragic loss of the Hunt family: a single bunch of flowers anonymously laid at the front entrance.
The shock deaths of Kim Hunt and her three children, Fletcher, Mia and Phoebe, has stunned the small community of Lockhart, west of Wagga Wagga.
The discovery of their father's body in a dam near the Watch Hill home has them asking why.
How this could have happened to them, a quiet, industrious rural town with just 900 residents.
The Hunts were a well-respected, well-loved and apparently happy family, townspeople say.
"These people were well integrated into the local community through work, through social events, through sport. Three young children attended the local school," said Wagga Wagga Local Area Commander, Superintendent Bob Noble.
Deputy mayor of Lockhart Council Rodger Schirmer knew the family well, and had just one word to describe them: "normal".
They had lived in the area for generations, he said.
"This was something that nobody expected," he said. "But often things are always sent to trial us and surprise us."
A devastated Lockhart is in mourning and according to locals, it will take a long time to recover from the heartache.
At Lockhart District Hospital, people tied black ribbons to entrance bollards as a mark of respect for nurse Kim.
The Australian flag flew at half mast at the Hunt children's school, St Joseph's Primary, with students, parents and teachers struggling to come to terms with the loss.
Supt Noble visited the school in the morning and was obviously moved by their grief.
"There's little hearts breaking all over the place," he said, perhaps describing the feelings of the whole community.
