Mr Barilaro fronted an ecstatic crowd at the Queanbeyan Kangaroos Club on election night, with family and supporters chanting 'Bara! Bara!' as he entered the room to the theme music from 'Rocky'.

While Mr Barilaro stopped short of claiming outright victory on Saturday night, the numbers were heading steadily his way, and by Sunday afternoon his Labor rival Steve Whan had phoned to concede the contest.

A very relieved John Barilaro told The Queanbeyan Age this week that voters had rewarded a strong four years in the bellwether seat, and knew what he stood for.

"People know me and they know where I've stood on the issues facing the Monaro, like Mr Fluffy, like poles and wires. And they recognised that I've stood up for this area."

However with federal government cuts to the public service affecting the local workforce and a controversial Baird Government proposal to sell state-owned electricity infrastructure by way of a 99-year-lease, the Monaro was looming as one of around 15 seats likely to change hands at the election.

"I was really up against it," Mr Barilaro said.

"Steve [Whan] had said his polling had him in out in front right up until the last week of the election. So the seat swings very late. They're [voters] still making up their minds right up until they hit the polling booth," he said.

The Barilaro campaign made the most of a large team of around 300 volunteers, bolstered by Nationals volunteers from around the nation and ACT Liberal volunteers, who assisted with door knocking, phone calls and handing out letterbox leaflets and how-to-vote cards.

A strong TV and radio advertising campaign focusing on family values also helped get him over the line, Mr Barilaro said. He said ads showing him working with his father in the workshop of their family business helped him reach out to voters.

"We ran the TV ads, but we made them very different, we made them about values.

"People who have known me in the last four years have known me as their local member, but I wanted to try and depict that before I was a pollie, I ran a business, I've got family values, and I learnt a lot of my values from my father. I really wanted this election to be about who I am and what my values are."

Vote counting is continuing in the Monaro, but Mr Barilaro looks likely to extend his margin here by a further 1pc. Steve Whan has won around 41pc of first preference votes, while Captains Flat Greens' candidate Peter Marshall has gained around 9 per cent of first preference votes in the Monaro.The other minor party candidates from the Fred Nile Group and No Land Tax parties each won just over 1pc of the vote.

Meanwhile, Mr Barilaro says this new, four-year term will be his last in NSW politics, while his opponent Steve Whan is now retiring from politics altogether.