This bucolic setting on the hills outside Coonabarabran, in north-west NSW, belies the "incomprehensible" deaths of two young boys, as their 66-year-old grandmother awaits likely charges.
The bodies of the boys, aged six and seven, were found in a house on Emu Lane on Monday afternoon, after a message sent to the communities and justice department triggered an urgent police response.
Two junior officers broke into the home to find the younger child in the front bedroom and the older boy in another room, while their grandmother was nearby having attempted self-harm.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Andrew Holland said the killings were being treated as a double murder but would not speculate on what charges would be laid.
"It was a confronting tragedy that shouldn't have occurred," he told reporters outside Coonabarabran police station on Tuesday.
The grandmother, who had no criminal history, was being assessed in a hospital in Orange and would likely be charged in the coming days or weeks.
The boys had been placed in her sole care by the department.
"Something like this affects our community in a very, very hard way," Mr Holland said.
"The death of two young, innocent boys has a major impact.
"If people are dealing with mental health issues, they need to make contact, they need to get support ... and to speak out is probably the biggest thing."
There were no weapons involved in the killings and autopsies on Thursday would confirm the boys' causes of death, he said.
The family moved to the farming town of 2300 from the central coast about 11 months ago.
Mr Holland said the officers who found the boys, along with the Coonabarabran community, were distressed by the deaths.
"These things shock small country towns - the death of one child is bad enough, the death of two is just incomprehensible."
Groups of locals gathered near the police station as Mr Holland addressed the media, but were unwilling to speak to reporters.
Warrumbungle Shire councillor Kodi Brady described the boys as "firecrackers".
"They were amongst it all, 100 miles an hour, involved in soccer, karate, wild as march hares and cute as buttons!' Mr Brady wrote on Facebook.
Local MP Roy Butler also acknowledged the tragedy online, saying his heart went out to the town.
"The death of any child is always devastating. In a small, close community, where everyone is connected in some way, it hits the community even harder," he wrote on Facebook.
"Any death is tragic, but in circumstances where it's avoidable, it causes even more pain."
Premier Chris Minns said the education department was working closely with the boys' school to provide support to other students.
"These are the kinds of crimes that are just so heartbreaking for a community like that, to think of the vulnerability of young children in particular, I can imagine that community is going through hell right now," he said.
"We'll provide all of the resources and help that we can, either through the school or the local community, but I'm heartbroken for them, and I realise this will leave and cast a long shadow."
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