As of noon Wednesday, Mr Coulton had received 54,575 first-preference votes from the election.

That was followed by 26,540 for Labor candidate Kate Stewart and 5,794 for Green’s candidate Matt Parmeter.

The fourth highest number of votes went to Christian Democratic Party’s Glen Ryan at 3,917 and Phillip John Ayton from the Online Direct Democracy Party had 2,142.

However, divisional returning officer for Parkes Erin Eames said there were still about 2,500 votes to be counted.

“It was a pleasing result,” Mr Coulton said.

“It’s back a little bit on my result in 2013 and I believe the change in the boundaries has been responsible for that.

“Broken Hill coming in changes the demographic of the electorate. Now I can concentrate on the next term of government and representing the people of western NSW.”

Doing so was “an honour and privilege”, Mr Coulton added.

“There is a degree of responsibility with this position, one that I take very very seriously,” he said. 

“I look forward to the next term of government and I look forward to possibly being here in three years time doing the same thing.”

Mr Coulton has held the seat since 2007.

In Gunnedah on election day, during a flying visit of the 393,413-square-kilometre electorate, he vowed to address roads, mining and agriculture in the local area.

“I think it’s very foolish to brand yourself as pro or anti mining,” he said at the time.

“We can’t survive in this country without agriculture.

"It’s now the second biggest export earner we have and also you can’t have agriculture without mining. You’ve got to look at issues on their merits, one at a time.”

Mr Coulton pointed to the Shenhua and Vickery mines around Gunnedah as issues of concern, while adding the roll-out of NBN and road upgrades, such as Grain Valley Way, were local priorities.

The federal member thanked both the Australian Electoral Commission for their work- including flying staff into towns when the roads were cut off- and his own staff.