His nearest rival, Labor’s Peter Alley, had secured 38 per cent of the two-party preferred vote and a minor 1.48 per cent swing in his favour.

Dr Gillespie secured 43,218 first preference votes as of Sunday afternoon, almost 50 per cent of the votes, while Mr Alley’s count sat at 22,820 votes, or 26.37 per cent.

“I am very proud and honoured to have been re-elected by the people of Lyne to represent them in government,” Dr Gillespie said.

“I have a very large an diverse electorate from the Barrington Tops to the Myall and Mid-North Coast covering 16,000 square kilometres – that’s a lot of area to cover.

“I look forward to visiting all of those communities and speaking with our constituents.”

Dr Gillespie said when it’s back to business as usual, the focus will shift on to delivering on funding promises to his electorate, aged care and health, roads and education.

The Wauchope-based MP has an office in Taree but will consider where he will be best placed in other areas to ensure he has the electorate covered.

The redistribution of the electoral boundaries which effectively split Port Macquarie between Cowper and Lyne posed challenges for candidates in both regions.

Dr Gillespie said it was an opportunity to get to know his new constituents in the south and the issues important to them.

On first preference voting on Sunday The Greens’ Julie Lyford, former Gloucester mayor, had claimed 7,952 votes and a 2.58 per cent swing in her favour. Independent Brad Christensen, who spent most of Saturday on the election trail, performed commendably with a 9.45 per cent positive swing and 8,174 votes.

Julie Lyford was buoyed by the support for The Greens at the polls.

“It was really surprising. A lot of young people who care about climate change, social justice issues and employment are getting on board with Greens policies and what they stand for,” she said.