IT WAS all over by 8.15pm in Bass.
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In one of the swiftest federal election results historically, sitting Labor MHR Geoff Lyons eyed off the counting so far and made the phone call.
"I rang Andrew (Nikolic) and congratulated him," said a resigned Mr Lyons, nursing a beer.
By 8.15pm, 36 of the 54 polling booths in the marginal Northern Tasmanian seat had been counted.
Liberal candidate Andrew Nikolic already had 46.6 per cent of the primary votes with Mr Lyons sitting on 34.9 per cent.
"It was pretty obvious with the numbers the way they were," Mr Lyons said.
"When the swing is on, the swing is on and you can't stop that."
Mr Lyons said that he had worked as hard as he could for the past three years.
He was thankful that he'd been able to secure some big ticket items for Northern Tasmania such as the Launceston General Hospital rebuild, the $325 million health rescue package last year as well as irrigation scheme money and money for the defence science centre, at Scottsdale.
"I just wish I had a chance to make sure this exercise science thing at the university (University of Tasmania, Launceston) gets up - I've been involved in it for many months," he said.
"This is the future of Tasmania and I just hope that Andrew is able to get it off the ground."
Mr Lyons said that it had been, "a great honour and privilege," to serve the people of Bass.
"I guess I'm mindful of my family - I've given up being with them a lot in this job and so I look forward to be a bit more part of the family now."
He is also looking forward to attending the NTFA grand final between Bridgenorth and Rocherlea next weekend as president of the association.