Opposition health spokesman Walt Secord was in Orange during the count, crunching the primary vote numbers and found swings up to 61.3 per cent away from The Nationals in some booths.

“This is the end of Troy Grant,” he said.

“They can’t put their hands on their hearts and claim victory because they’ve got massive, massive swings – one of 59.9 per cent in Molong, Cumnock had 61.3 per cent, in Forbes it was 25-29 per cent, depending on the booth, in Orange it was 35-37 per cent, in Manildra there was a 60 per cent swing against The Nationals.

“These are some of the biggest swings in byelection history.”

Mr Secord said while The Nationals were still slightly ahead of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, preferences still had to be counted.

“And our preferences will flow to the Shooters,” he said.

VIDEO: Bernard Fitzsimon on election night:

Country Labor candidate Bernard Fitzsimon said he had a similar experience to The Nationals’ volunteers in the low numbers of people taking how-to-vote cards.

“Some were taking them from the Shooters, but they were walking right past The Nationals. That’s very different to 2015,” he said.

After saying the seat would take a miracle to win, Mr Fitzsimon conceded the miracle did not come true, with Labor likely to come third.

“But we’ve still had a win in that I think we’ve really started to drive a nail in the coffin of the National party in rural and regional NSW,” he said.

He said Labor had run a fantastic campaign.

“We had top support from all the shadow ministers and [Opposition Leader] Luke Foley was terrific,” he said.

“It’s the job of the opposition to hold the government to account and I think we’ve held the government to account pretty well in this byelection – people want decent palliative care, they want a multi-level car park at the hospital and they want it to be unpaid.”

He said he expected the overall swing to be about 31-39 per cent away from The Nationals.

Asked about his impression of the vote, Orange councillor and former Labor candidate Glenn Taylor raised both thumbs.

“I’ve devoted half my life to see the demise of The Nationals in Orange,” he said.