As an obstetrician at Wangaratta Base Hospital, Colin Pearse said he always trusted his colleague Helen Haines’ judgment as a midwife when they worked together.
“And I [have] always trusted her judgment when she was a politician,” Pearse says.
Pearse – who pitched up a bright orange cockatoo to the picket fence outside his home in Wangaratta – said that after working together for about 14 years, he wrote Haines her reference when she applied to become the matron of the Chiltern Bush Nursing Hospital.
“I still call her Matron,” he said on his porch. “She loves it.”
As Wangaratta grapples with news that Haines was allegedly targeted by local man Brendan Nugent on Monday, when the 43-year-old allegedly mowed her down outside her electorate office on Murphy Street, Pearse is one of many now displaying an orange cockatoo on the front of their properties as an act of solidarity with their federal MP.
Haines has used the colour orange to differentiate herself from other major parties and the teal independents she sits alongside in parliament. The cockatoo, she said in 2024, was both a reference to the name of her newsletter and the independent movement within her Indi electorate more broadly.
“It actually emerged during the 2016 election campaign, when it was observed that the volunteers campaigning for Cathy McGowan [Haines’ predecessor] were like a flock of cockatoos,” Haines explained in a social media post.
“The association and symbolism has grown from there, representing a community flocking together to build a vibrant democracy.”
Haines said over the years since her first run for parliament in 2019, locals have “crafted cockies” out of all manner of things, like old yard signs – something Pearse confirmed.
“The orange cockatoo was left over from her election years ago. We used to have it up on the wall, but we took it down after the election,” he said. “But then the bloke over the road put his two [orange cockatoos] up. So I thought, ‘oh, I’ve got mine somewhere’. We put it up on the fence, too.”
Asked about his other memories of Haines, Pearse simply said: “We worked together really well.”
Nearby, Jamie Chubb – who has also placed an orange cockatoo outside her home – told The Age that the birds were traditionally a symbol of Haines’ political campaign, but “now they are a non-political statement. We’re just showing our support for Helen.”
Another local, Julie Davey, became visibly emotional when asked about Haines. “She is just a terrific person,” she said, as her orange cockatoo twisted in the wind.
“She listens. She is thoughtful. And she remembers things. We wanted to show our support for her. There is nothing else we could do,” Davey said.
At the nearby office of a psychologist, an orange heart is posted on the front door.
Addressing the media on Wednesday afternoon, Haines’ husband of almost four decades, Phil Haines, said Helen remained in a critical but stable condition, and confirmed that due to the severity of her injuries both of her legs had been amputated.
But, he stressed, “her heart and her mind are in good shape … the good news in all this is that she’s alive”.
Phil asked people to “please keep sending Helen your love” and urged people wanting to show their support to a cause close to the MP’s heart – the Save the Children fund. In the 24 hours since, almost $400,000 has been raised.
Earlier on Wednesday, Nugent faced court in Wangaratta on five charges including dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and a federal charge of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official.
He did not apply for bail, and his lawyer Chirag Patel said Nugent suffered from a rare neurological condition, idiopathic transverse myelitis. He is scheduled to appear in court again in February.
On Wednesday evening, a vigil was held in the nearby town of Wodonga – the heart of Haines’ federal electorate – where McGowan consoled the crowd of hundreds.
“That this happened in our town, [allegedly] by one of our community members, to one of us. In the attack on Helen, it is an attack on all of us,” McGowan said.
Rutherglen resident Rod Sutcliffe, who attended the vigil, said the tight-knit community are “trying to make sense of it”.
“She is just a wonderful person,” Sutcliffe said. Having previously volunteered for her campaigns, he said he is worried about what the MP and grandmother’s “life is going to be like now”.