The retirement of John “Wacka” Williams and the loss of Fiona Nash to dual citizen ineligibility means the National Party will next month hold its first open senate preselection in 12 years.

The winning candidate is likely to fill the third position on the Coalition’s federal ticket behind current Liberal Senators Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Jim Molan, but that has yet to be confirmed.

The NSW Nationals’ central council will preselect its senate candidate during a meeting on September 7 but the first hurdle for Mr Farraway was winning a formal nomination from the Bathurst branch of the party.

That nomination was rubber-stamped on Tuesday night, making Mr Farraway the local branch’s first nomination in recent memory.

Mr Farraway hoped geography would help him in his bid to win preselection for the half-senate elections due to be held by May next year.

“The Central West is an incredibly important part of NSW and the country due to the amount of small businesses and population growth here, especially in a place like Bathurst, so I would love to see a senator who hails from the Central West – whether it was me or someone else,” he said.

“A senator from Bathurst or the Central West would help get rid of that north of the state or south of the state issue of representation and would be well served to represent every community west of the Dividing Range.”

Mr Farraway is currently chairman of the NSW Nationals’ Bathurst State Electoral Council and president of the Bathurst Agricultural, Horticultural and Pastoral Association.

He was manager of the family-run Hertz business in town until the recent sale of the business.

Mr Farraway unsuccessfully contested the Nationals’ preselection for the federal seat of Calare following John Cobb’s retirement in 2016.