10.25pm INDI: But wait, Sophie Mirabella is not conceding quite yet. She told The Border Mail’s David Johnston it was always going to be a challenge against a sitting “so-called independent member.”

9.52pm NEW ENGLAND: Barnaby Joyce is making his victory speech in Tamworth:

9.40pm INDI: Live right now – Cathy McGowan retains her seat.

LYNE 9.30pm: Rob Oakeshott speaks to his supporters as the votes get counted.  He says it's going to come down to preferences and whoever wins will have a job to do. He said regardless of whether he wins or not, the community of Cowper has won at this election. Independent Rob Oakeshott addresses his troops … more here

9.20pm BASS: Newly elected Bass Labor MHR Ross Hart has said that health issues played a massive part in carrying him to victory over incumbent Liberal Andrew Nikolic. Mr Hart also credited the ground campaign that Labor ran in the electorate as seeing him win the seat. Read on

8.50pm INDI: Things are tight in Indi but it looks like independent Cathy McGowan will hang on. Keep up-to-date here courtesy of the Border Mail

8.45pm EDEN-MONARO: This from Fairfax’s Latika Bourke:

8.25pm NEW ENGLAND: Significant Tamworth voting centre count, TRECC, has come through but only marginally advanced Barnaby Joyce. He is holding 56.81 per cent of projected two party preferred vote. Rolling updates here

8.05pm EDEN-MONARO: Here’s how the AEC virtual tally room has it looking in the seat of Eden-Monaro:

And that might just explain this photo …

8.05pm BASS: Ross Hart has claimed the seat of Bass.  Liberal incumbent Andrew Nikolic: 36.73  per cent. More here

8pm BASS: The projected two candidate preferred for Bass with 33 of 48 polling places returned and 40.60% votes counted sees a 10% swing against incumbent Liberal Party member Andrew Nikolic. Labor’s Ross Hart is the man whose star is on the rise.

7.55pm COWPER: With 19 of 65 polling places returned and 8.66% votes counted, Luke Hartsuyker has a -0.65% swing against him. The beneficiary on a two party-preferred basis? Labor’s Damian Wood. Early days.

7.45pm EDEN-MONARO: Phil Coorey, chief political correspondent from the Australian Financial Review has tweeted:

7.40pm BASS: From The Examiner’s rolling coverage …

7.30pm INDI: There’s 18 of 74 polling places returned and 4.40% votes counted and the AEC’s virtual tally room says incumbent Cathy McGowan has a 3.99 per cent swing going her way.

7pm BASS: Liberal incumbent Andrew Nikolic has a 7.42 per cent swing against him, with Labor candidate Ross Hart holding a 6.75 per cent swing. Meanwhile in the equally hotly-contested Braddon Labor candidate Justine Keay has a 8.55 swing against Liberal incumbent Brett Whiteley.

7pm NEW ENGLAND: Early, early figures …

COWPER: Already there looks to be controversy in Cowper. Rob Oakeshott has shared a text and has tweeted that he will make a formal complaint about the “hand writing” of ballots. This is an issue to watch – and one, if social media is to be believed, has been happening elsewhere.

NEW ENGLAND: Barnaby Joyce was "confident but not cocky" as he voted in his hometown of Woolbrook. The Deputy Prime Minister voted alongside his wife, Natalie, and his parents, Jim and Marie - but the media far out numbered the voters at the local school of 23 students. Mr Joyce said he always made a point of voting at Woolbrook Public School, where he was captain in 1978. The full story

INDI: Imagine a world where a complete underdog came out of nowhere to become Indi’s MP. Up until vote tallies start to rise after 6pm Saturday, each candidate is equal on zero and anything is possible. Reporter Shana Morgan breaks it down

The Australian Electoral Commission defines a "marginal" seat as one where "the leading party receives less than 56 per cent of the two party preferred vote."

Under that calculation, 62 seats of the 150-seat House of Representatives are notionally up for grabs, with a swing of less than six percent required for the seat to change hands.

Of those marginal seats, 31 are held by the Coalition and 27 are held by Labor, with independents holding the remainder.

The Liberal-National party coalition holds 90 seats in the House – more than the 76 needed to form government.

The Bill Shorten-led Labor Party has 55 seats..

We’ll be keeping tabs on many of those regional seats that just might be in the balance. Seats such as these:

The incumbent MP, Cathy McGowan, is an independent expected to go head-to-head with one-time Liberal darling, Sophie Mirabella.

Mirabella, who had held the seat from 2001, lost to McGowan in 2013.

Watch the Border Mail’s candidates election forum from June 20, 2016.

For the past 44 years, the party that has taken the vast electorate in south-eastern NSW has taken government.

Former member and Labor candidate Mike Kelly’s presence might mean junior Finance Minister Peter Hendy’s reign is a short one.

A poll released as the eight-week campaign neared its end had Dr Kelly ahead – on preferences

It is 15 years since an incumbent has been returned in Bass, which takes in Launceston and radiates through small towns in the north and north-east of the island state.

In parts of Bass and the neighbouring Liberal-held marginal seats Braddon and Lyons, the election was relegated to a second order issue as the worst floods in nearly a century took three lives and caused at least $100 million damage.

Held by Liberal Andrew Nikolic, Labor’s Ross Hart is expected to be the main contender.

Here’s how the campaign played out in Bass – week by week.

According to the bookies, Deputy Prime Minister and incumbent Barnaby Joyce is the red-hot favourite to retain his seat.

Mr Joyce was paying $1.27 for the win and his closest rival was, unsurprisingly, former MP, independent candidate Tony Windsor, at $3.50.

It hasn’t all been fun and games in New England for the past eight weeks, with fur flying regularly as the campaign became increasingly personal.

Coalition strategists appear to have hit the panic button in the NSW seat of Cowper, mobilising Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in an attempt to protect former National Party minister Luke Hartsuyker against the late challenge by the independent.

Held by incumbent Luke Hartsuyker, of The Nationals, with a margin of 13%, Mr Oakeshott’s return to the fray has livened up proceedings – as has the redistribution. Here’s how it’s panning out.