Wangaratta has been thrust into an unwelcome spotlight this week. Residents in this rural Victorian town are used to catering to tourists passing through on their way to regional wineries, or music lovers visiting its annual jazz and blues festival.

Instead, locals are fielding endless questions about their MP - and having to explain to strangers what it all means for the town's nearly 30,000 people.

They are clearly in shock about what police say was a targeted and deliberate attack on Helen Haines on Monday afternoon, when she was struck by a car just outside her office.

"People are simply dumbfounded and finding it very hard to fathom the scale of this tragedy," Australia's Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who represents King Charles, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The independent federal MP had to have both legs amputated after she was airlifted to Melbourne.…