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• The Libs need a 16% swing against them in my electorate for them to even look like losing.

  I didn’t vote for them, which would hardly move the dial anyway.

• Living in hope.

• In Wannon, heart of The Western District where once you could put a blue tie on a kelpie and it would be elected by the local Liberals, the word is that Independent, Alex Dyson is in with a chance this time.
  Third time lucky?
  Be great to see a professional comedian join the other clowns in Canberra. Even greater to farewell dapper Dan Tehan, still regarded as a blow-in by locals - including the rump of the squattocracy who haven't been the same since Malcolm hung up his stock whip. (Malcolm Fraser that is, not Malcolm "Fizza" Turnbull.)
  Locals still tell the story of a few farm hands who were out on the Fraser property, Nareen, fixing fences.
  The men had knocked off because it was dark and they were brewing a billy of tea when, in a thunder of hoofbeats, suddenly, The Boss was amongst them, fully booted and spurred. On horseback. Swinging the whip wildly. Screaming.
  You could tell that Malcolm was a bit worked up. But his message was clear. The workers could all fuck off. Or he'd call the police. Immediately.
  "I trust I make myself clear!"
  With a final crack of the whip, and without dismounting, our great helmsman, who on retirement became outspoken on humanitarian matters, wheeled his steed around and galloped back towards the woodshed, said to have been a recycled part of Hamilton airport, toward the odd bungalow form that is the homestead at Nareen.

• I saw somewhere - sorry, can’t remember where - that exit polls in Dickson show Ali France leading Dutton by a quarter of a whisker.

  Interesting, but it wasn’t enough to get my hopes up.

• Hi, David. Wannon - was that Malcom Fraser’s electorate?

• The good news:That complete arsehole,pretender, fuckwit Boofhead, will be gone.
  The bad news:A Labor majority ensures another three years of avoiding the urgent issues facing the planet.
  A minority Labor government would allow the crossbench to force Labor to come good.Provided they don't gang up with the LNP rump, which is not out of the question.
  Whatever the eventual result in number of seats,we'll have to put up with all the usual post election horse shit, with all the "experts"explaining why they were actually right all along...even when they were not.
  At least the member for Maranoa won't stress out...he's in the middle of redneck central.

• I’m with you, Harry. The best outcome will be a minority Labor government. A lot would get done.

• I'm in the Dickson electorate. Crossing everything that we'll finally be able to get the d!ck out of Dickson.

• Yes, Roswell, Fraser was Wannon.

  Hi, Dave. Wonderful to see you.

• re. David Tyler's anecdote, it is possibly apocryphal; in the summers of '69 and '70 I worked in that district, residing in Casterton and each day driving past Fraser's property en route to various farms where my employer had hay-carting contracts; I drove the trucks in the paddocks along the lines of hay bales with an attached jig that picked up the bales and lifted them to the back of the truck and my boss stacked... after we loaded two trucks we'd go back to the sheds and build the stacks. My boss was a born & bred western Victorian from that town, and he was full of yarns about his childhood and the characters in that district. We drove past Fraser's property, Nareen, many times, but he never mentioned that story about Fraser's behaviour. Not denying, but who knows?

  Sid Kidman, the cattle king, who started with next to nothing and became the largest landholder in Australia during his time, was reputed to have sacked an employee who used a match to light his cigarette instead of choosing an ember from the camp fire. Apocryphal? Possibly. Bush legends take on a life of their own.