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Pauline Hanson was a long way from home when she finally achieved the victory she has waited nearly three decades for.

In the sprawling rural electorate of Farrer, which covers vast swathes of land in south-western NSW, the Queensland firebrand’s One Nation party secured its first ever lower-house seat win.

Farrer had elected either a National or Liberal member for 76 years, until Saturday night.

But its voters are waking up in One Nation country on Sunday.

“It’s a hard day today,” says Nellie, a 74-year-old volunteer for Michelle Milthorpe, as she picked up the weekend’s newspapers.

“We knew that it would be hard yards because Pauline’s profile is, and always has been, phenomenal.

“In fairness to Pauline, she’s worked hard for decades, and she thoroughly believes what she thinks – it just happens to be the antithesis of what I think.”

Across the road, Billie, 64, and Mark, 69, were on a morning coffee stroll. The two are very happy with One Nation’s victory.

“I’ve always been Labor but I’ve always believed in Pauline,” Billie says.

Mark says he once voted for the Liberals, but now, with One Nation in the lower house, “we’ll see whether they can deliver … we’re hoping that they’ll keep the government honest”.

The theme across the campaigns of both frontrunners – One Nation’s David Farley and independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe – leading up to the historic byelection was almost identical.

The border electorate – long considered a safe Coalition seat – had been an afterthought in cabinet discussions and budget considerations for too long, according to many voters at the booths on Saturday.

Milthorpe had closed the gap on Ley’s lead in the May federal election and looked to become triumphant when she threw her hat in the ring for a second time in February.

But a disaffected constituency fed up with undelivered political promises, and captivated by One Nation’s alluring messaging, hit Milthorpe’s chances.

Hanson-mania had already taken a sizeable hold of Farrer.

‘We’re bloody lucky’

The residents of Farrer are far from a homogeneous voting bloc.

Early results indicate Farley will receive almost 40% of the primary vote, surpassing Milthorpe, who sits at about 28% at the time of writing. It means nearly 30,000 voted for the latter.

But with Labor’s decision not to field a candidate, and the Coalition’s primary vote plummeting once more to a combined total just over 20%, the preference flows were never in Milthorpe’s favour.

These factors appeared likely, even before the Coalition’s decision to preference One Nation above the independent.

On Saturday in Howlong, a 25-minute drive from Albury’s centre, Paige, 33, says she feels nervous about what a One Nation member will mean for Farrer because of “what is happening on an international stage with radicalised ideas”.

Liz, 69, a Milthorpe supporter, says she wanted a sensible MP that didn’t complain “about other people coming from other countries and shit like that”.

“We’re bloody lucky here that we have roofs over our heads and food and we’re not being bombed,” she says.

Plenty of others in Farrer, like John Lacovich, now expect One Nation to deliver.

The 76-year-old rolled into the Thurgoona Community Centre accompanied by Patch, a nine-year-old jack russell on Saturday. He says he loves Hanson because “she’s honest”.

“She knows what we need, and she makes sense when she speaks,” he says.

‘A test for One Nation’

In a teary concession speech to a room of adoring but heartbroken supporters, Milthorpe sums up a conundrum.

“The next two years will be a test for One Nation,” she says. “They will successfully reflect the anger we feel out here.

“But that is the easy part. The hard part is doing something about it.”

Farley’s test until the next federal election will be to deliver on Farrer’s main priorities. For many locals, that means sorting out what to do with the local hospital and healthcare.

It also means appeasing farmers and irrigators about the ongoing issues and disagreements with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan while also dealing with the flow-on impacts.

South Australia’s newly elected state politicians will surely have something to say if more water is allocated to Farrer before it reaches the lower Murray.

One Nation is also plagued by a history of inside turmoil. Many of its elected senators over the years have left to become independent – an issue questioned of Farley too, given his recent political journeys before settling on One Nation.