In idyllic Porepunkah, a manhunt this huge feels ‘surreal’ – and the alleged killer could be anywhere

Police allow ambulance vehicles through a roadblock on Mt Buffalo Road, just west of Porepunkah. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley

It would have been idyllic were it not for the sound of a police helicopter reverberating over the valley.

By late afternoon on Wednesday the rain had slowed to a drizzle in Porepunkah. Mist curled around the foothills of Mt Buffalo. Cows and sheep grazed under a grey sky, unperturbed by the massive manhunt around them.