Finding out which candidates have won their seats was the main focus over the weekend, but there were a number of other minor party winners and losers in the Illawarra election race.
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Celebrity candidate Gary "Angry" Anderson almost doubled the National Party vote in Throsby, taking it from 5.3 per cent to 10.4 per cent after a strong grassroots campaign.
Likewise, Palmer United Party candidate Lyndal Harris - the great-granddaughter of former Prime Minister Billy Hughes - followed Clive Palmer's strong national showing by scoring 6.8 per cent of the Gilmore vote.
By the Mercury's deadline, the billionaire party leader was ahead to win in the Queensland seat of Fairfax, and two PUP senate candidates looked likely to get a seat in Tasmania and Queensland.
PUP candidates earned 4.6 per cent of the vote in Throsby and 4.7 per cent in Cunningham.
Meantime, the Greens vote dipped in all three Illawarra electorates.
Despite hopes his profile as a Shellharbour councillor would help the Greens in Throsby, Peter Moran received 6.6 per cent fewer votes than in 2010.
In Cunningham, Helen Wilson received 11.6 per cent of the vote - a swing of 3.4 per cent away from the Greens - and in Gilmore Terry Barratt got about nine per cent, with only a small swing of 0.5 per cent away from his party.
Independent candidate Paul Matters received 1,676 votes - or 2.27 per cent - in Throsby, while candidates from the Democratic Labour Party, Katter's Australian Party and the Non-Custodial Parents Party failed to resonate with the electorate, receiving less than 400 votes each.
The Bullet Train for Australia candidate in Throsby got less than 1 per cent of first preference votes, while the three Illawarra Christian Democrats candidates won between 2 to 3 per cent.
