He spent the night in Point Piper before heading to Penrith.
Mr Harbourside Mansion, as he was unkindly dubbed by Peta Credlin, spent his election eve at, yes - there's no point pretending otherwise - his water-adjoined digs in Sydney's east, probably in the knowledge that if things went his way he wouldn't be home on his high thread-count sheets much over the next three years. 
He was out early with wife Lucy, both clad in Liberal-Aegean hues and bearing sprightly manners. They voted at the Double Bay Public School.
The Prime Minister, criticised by his opponents for being out of touch, showed his solidarity with the people in one key respect when he, too, struggled with his metre-long Senate ballot paper.
And yet as Malcolm grappled with the great upper-house scroll, so long it needs its own medieval page to unfurl it, he did so in the knowledge that its unwieldiness was a portent of the actual Senate he is likely to be stuck with come victory.
Malcolm Turnbull hadn't yet won the election, but he was sure rolling like he had. He had pepper in his pot and spring in his step.
The Turnbull media bus, full of the journalist-captives who travel with him during the campaign in what is part co-dependent relationship, part-hostage situation, was driven back to the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney's CBD.
The Prime Minister would be spending the afternoon relaxing with his family at home, reporters were told.
But Turnbull outfoxed them. Word soon filtered through that he had gone rogue. He was in Paddington shaking hands. He was photographed at Parramatta Town Hall. There he was at at a souvlaki stand. Next, he was on the train, taking selfies with beaming punters. Then he surfaced at Penrith South Public School, manning the sausage sizzle with perfect Prime Ministerial command. He was tong-master. The nation's First Tong-Master.
As the ancient Zen koan asks, does a politician even exist if there are no campaign day cameras there to capture him? If that politician is Malcolm Turnbull, it's no problem. He can take and tweet his own publicity photos.