The party looks set to pick up seats in the Senate and Mr Palmer is ahead in the seat of Fairfax.

Preliminary figures show the party’s candidate in Lyne, Troy Wilkie, secured 4,183 first preference votes.

“At the end of the day, I’m stoked,” Mr Wilkie said. “Here is a campaign only launched two weeks ago, against a person campaigning for an entire year, we got a great result. I couldn’t be happier.”

Mr Wilkie said voters liked the party’s message and policies, and he summed up the campaign experience in Lyne as “awesome”.

The Greens candidate for Lyne Ian Oxenford congratulated Mr Gillespie on his resounding win in Saturday’s election. 

“I’ve been swept off my feet by the enthusiastic support of Greens’ booth workers.”

 “Plenty of support too from voters in Lyne on a day that’s seen record temperatures – just highlighting again why we need real action on climate change,” Mr Oxenford said.

“I offer my sincere gratitude to all those helped throughout the campaign and especially those who slugged it out over the long hot polling day.

“This enthusiasm was reflected in a significant increase in our primary votes from 4.3 per cent in 2010 to 5.9 per cent this year (with 82 per cent counted).”

Christian Democratic Party candidate John Klose said he was grateful for “those little stars twinkling in the dark sky” who voted for Christian values and particularly for the party’s Senate candidate Robyn Peebles.

“We are praying Robyn Peebles will win her seat in the Senate to carry the Christian heritage in the house of review,” he said.

Mr Klose had 1,830 first preference votes late yesterday.

Citizens Electoral Council candidate for Lyne Michael Gough said he enjoyed the election campaign.

“It really opened up a while new world,” he said.

“It was a gruelling campaign, hard work but worth the effort.”

Mr Gough’s vote count was 282 on preliminary figures.

Katter’s Australian Party candidate Brian Buckley Clare recorded just over 700 votes yesterday after what he described as campaign run with limited resources.

“We gave it a try and that is the main thing,” he said.

“We only had volunteers at four polling places and that is why we got a very small result.”

THERE was only one candidate with a chance of getting close to heavy-favourite David Gillespie. In the end, Labor’s Peter Alley secured an admirable share of the vote in Lyne, but it wasn’t enough. 

The Camden Haven resident, who previously ran for local government, was encouraged by his party’s 7.7 per cent swing. He argued the swing emphasised the importance of Labor Party for country NSW.

“I think it (the result) shows we still have a story to tell,” Mr Alley said. “It has only ever been Labor governments that have invested in infrastructure regionally, while Nationals talk and never deliver.”

The brief respite at campaign’s end will be all the shorter, with Mr Alley due to return to the rigours of full-time work and university study. 

The Labor candidate refused to blame his campaign’s overall failure on the superior spending capacity of his main rival.

“Clearly we were out-spent, but that’s just something that happens.” Instead, Mr Alley was already busy pushing plans for the future of Lyne.

“There could be some huge benefits to Taree,” he said. “The Manning Hospital needs an upgrade, as does Crescent Head Surf Club and there could be a transport gateway hub at Cundletown.

“Mr Gillespie could be a really strong voice for regional infrastructure. It’s up to him.”

In a show of bipartisan optimism and good-faith, Mr Alley offered his best wishes to the victor.

“For the last thirty years the Nationals have failed to deliver for regional Australia, and I hope David can prove that record wrong,” he said.

“It will take a very strong voice from David Gillespie to get anything important done in Lyne.”