Hundreds of people began lining up outside  Tamworth Town Hall well before 8pm – despite chilly weather and more than one-and-a-half hours before the show – on Monday, and the queue stretched almost as far back as the Fitzroy and Marius streets intersection.

Nothing was going to keep away eager Q&A fans, and virtually every one of the 750 seats set up inside was taken by the time the cameras began rolling at 9.35pm.

The show had never been to Tamworth before and for loyal fans of the program it was a rare opportunity to be a part of  the live studio audience.

Well before they made it into the town hall, however, there was a strong union presence making itself felt outside.

Members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) from Newcastle, the Meatworkers Union (MWU) and the NSW Teachers’ Federation were handing out pamphlets, and there was a campaign featuring a giant papier mache likeness of Deputy Prime Minister and member for New England Barnaby Joyce’s head, calling for the member for New England to support Australia using 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and to stop his support of coal mining.

At last, after almost 30 minutes of waiting in line, people were ushered into the town hall. 

Inside, the stage had been set up to look just like the familiar Q&A set in the ABC’s Ultimo studios that fans know all too well.

Local country singer Sally-Anne Whitten  kept the crowd entertained while they got settled in, before Q&A floor manager Hilary Firth introduced herself to the audience and producer Peter McEvoy took them through the dos and don’ts.

As well as some light-hearted banter, Mr McEvoy also read out some tweets that had been posted mostly by audience members as they waited to get into the town hall, and, with everyone now settled in, the tweets’ authors were pointed out in the crowd.

He also named the dozen people who had been given the opportunity to ask their questions of the panel. There were some well-known names in the list, including medicinal marijuana advocate Lucy Haslam, who received a boisterous round of applause when Mr McEvoy read out her name but who wasn’t able to ask her question due to time constraints.

Other familiar faces included businessman Jye Segboer and councillor Mark Rodda. There was also Sandra Bamberry, Liverpool Plains beef farmer Nicola Chirlian, David Doherty, Lucy Gallagher, David Crewe, Jane Kibble, Margaret Evans, Rachael Sowden, Elizabeth Wakeford, Bruce Myers and Susie Dunn, although not everyone got an opportunity to ask their question.

As the clock ticked down to the moment of going to air, host Tony Jones and the guests – National Farmers’ Federation vice-president Fiona Simson, Mr Joyce, independent federal candidate and former member for New England Tony Windsor, local businesswoman Robbie Sefton from Sefton and Associates, and Labor agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon – were brought out and seated.

The hot-button and locally-contentious issue of mining activities on farmland dominated the night’s discussion, as did the National Broadband Network (NBN) and health services in rural and regional Australia.

Mrs Bamberry, originally from Tara in Queensland, spoke about the “nightmare” coal seam gas wells were there, and raised concerns about the contamination of air and water on farmers’ properties, while Mrs Chirlian grilled Mr Joyce on the topic of protecting farmland from mining activity.

Mr Doherty asked Mr Windsor whether he was standing for the seat of New England at the July 2 federal election again “purely out of spite”, a question which elicited a loud groan from the audience.

Ms Evans wanted Mr Windsor’s reassurance he’d remain independent and not aligned to any particular party should he win the seat at the election, while Mr Rodda, a former Liberal/Nationals voter, expressed his disillusionment at the main political parties.

Mrs Wakeford’s question about “third-world” telecommunications available to her, on a farm just 20km outside of Tamworth, inspired Mr Windsor to utter a phrase that seemed to resonate with the audience – “Do it once, do it right and do it with fibre” – about the NBN.

The NBN and health discussions were intrinsically linked, with Mrs Simson saying she believed the “tyranny of distance” experienced in the bush when it came to health services could be alleviated by adequate high-speed broadband connections provided by the NBN.

As is often the case, the episode ran overtime, wrapping up at almost 10.50pm.

As the hundreds of people shuffled out of the hall, the mood was upbeat. Several people expressed their delight that  the two women on the panel were given a lot of time to air their views, and a lot of the chatter revolved around how much people enjoyed the show.

It seems Q&A would be welcomed back to Tamworth any time.