The mood in Mr Fitzgibbon’s camp on election night was full of excitement – not nervousness.

Sure enough, Mr Fitzgibbon called the win for himself at around 8.30pm, about the same time his former staffer Meryl Swanson claimed victory in the neighbouring seat of Paterson for Labor.

Despite new-look electoral boundaries being in play during Saturday’s election, Mr Fitzgibbon's grasp on the seat never really looked to be in doubt.

Even though the electorate took in new towns, the seat was still considered safely Labor’s.

That’s something that was reflected in the voting results, as Mr Fitzgibbon secured about a 25 per cent margin over his two-party preferred rival, Nationals candidate Ruth Rogers.

Meanwhile, the fall of Paterson from Liberal hands meant the Hunter Region’s four key electorates are now Labor territories.

This shows there is clear dissatisfaction with the Coalition government in this region.

But while the results across the Hunter Region were decisive, the nation will have to wait to find out who the Prime Minister and governing party will be for the next term of Parliament.

The prospect of a hung Parliament, where no party has a clear majority with which to govern, was very much on the table at the time the Advertiser went to print on Tuesday afternoon.

Most commentators have agreed in recent days that it’s unlikely Labor will win enough seats to form government on its own.

However, the Hunter could possibly benefit from a hung Parliament.

Instead of being in an outnumbered Opposition, the region’s MPs would have more bargaining power for their electorates if the Liberal/Nationals Coalition didn’t have the majority.

But given vote counting for the Lower House will not resume until Tuesday, and there are several seats on a knife’s edge that may need recounts, we are unlikely to know the final result for days, at least.

So it looks like what was Australia’s longest election campaign since the 1950s has developed into a drawn out period of continued political uncertainty.