Gabrielle of Port Macquarie was celebrating her special milestone birthday in very long voting queues at Westport High School this morning.

The first-time voter said she was taking the privilege of having a say on the future of the nation seriously and had even done her homework before deciding on how she’d cast her first vote.

Among the issues Gabrielle explored online were negative gearing and carbon omissions with the environment at the front of her thinking going to the polls today.

“I think more needs to be done for the environment,” Gabrielle said.

The Mackillop College student will sit her Higher School Certificate this year and intends to study environmental science at university. She completed a major project on pollution issues in the Hastings River and regularly monitors litter issues around Pelican Island.

Gabrielle has no interest in entering politics like other members of her family.

Her uncle the late Dr Paul Brock was an influential figure in politics at Armidale before taking up an appointment as the advisor to the Minister for Education.

Much of his later work involved research into Motor Neurone disease - a disease he succumbed to himself last year.