The bitter battle for New England came down to primary schools at 10 paces.
Barnaby Joyce showed up at his first school, Woolbrook Public, in the foothills of the Moonbi Range on Saturday afternoon to cast his vote. 
His main rival, Tony Windsor, earlier had fronted up at his old school, Werris Creek Public about 100 kilometres south on the Black Soil Plains.
Mr Joyce was favoured to retain the seat. Both have been involved in a no-love-lost contest but, while Mr Windsor has been mainly dependent on public support, Mr Joyce had the power of Nationals money and the prestige and clout of deputy prime ministership.
So as the local boy made good, Mr Joyce was able to lobby successfully to keep the Woolbrook polling booth open after the Australian Electoral Commission wanted to close it to save money.
Mr Joyce refused to say who he would vote for but did accept how-to-vote material from his own side and Mr Windsor's supporters.
"Might as well be ecumenical," he said as he walked into the polling booth with his wife Nat and parents Jim and Maree Joyce.
He made much of his time as school captain 1978, an experience that gave him early leadership in helming small teams.
"There were 16 students," he recalled. "To think you could start here and become deputy prime minister. It says a lot about Australia."
Earlier, the fields were still covered with frost when Mr Windsor arrived at Werris Creek Public.
Sixty-one years ago he walked into the school as a first grader and met his wife Lyn.
"I guess I feel a little the same way today," Mr Windsor said.
"This is my eighth campaign. I've never had so many people walk up to me in the street and offer support."
Mr Windsor, now 65, resigned due to ill health in 2013 and Mr Joyce, 49, won with a comfortable 14.5 per cent margin after he resigned his Queensland Senate seat to contest New England.
The two men have fought a hard and bitter campaign. The Nationals carpet-bombed the electorate with billboards reminding voters of Mr Windsor's support for Julia Gillard's minority Labor government. The last week also had allegations surface of schoolboy bullying nearly 50 years ago.
Mr Windsor has been a thorn in the Nationals' side ever since he was dudded in a 1991 preselection by the local party warlord, the former deputy prime minister, John Anderson.
Mr Windsor went on to stand and win a state seat as an independent before taking New England. He said the Nationals had continued to throw mud at him and rejected the schoolboy bully allegations as "crap".
"That's what The Australian [newspaper] does," he said. "That's how they do things. My kids saw how they operated on my mother during the hung parliament. That's their modis operandi. Anything goes.
"We copped worst than that during the hung parliament. A lot of it never became public. But in terms of a political campaign, this one's probably been the worse that I've taken part in."