Alex Morris found herself sobbing, with relief and joy, on the sofa as president elect Joe Biden gave his victory speech on Sunday.
The Newcastle freelance writer, formerly of Kentucky and South Carolina, voted for Mr Biden in the US election.
Like other American expatriates the Newcastle Herald spoke to after Donald Trump was finally declared the loser of an historic vote, Ms Morris was hopeful, if not entirely confident, that his successor would be able to heal some of the growing divisions in US society.
"I just watched Biden's speech. My partner just watched me cry on the couch," she said.
"I was crying big sobs, because it's just such a refreshing language that we haven't heard in so long, and it made me feel so happy and excited and hopeful about being an American citizen again.
"I've kind of been distancing myself from it because I've been so afraid of the result, but it was actually really therapeutic."
The dual citizen sees Mr Trump's presidency as a reflection of a fragile and divided world, rather than a problem confined to her former home country.
"I think something is very wrong. We need to be looking critically at it and thinking about how we can be united as Americans and as citizens of the world.
"He doesn't represent me, but he clearly represents a lot of people.
"I hope Biden and [Kamala] Harris steer us towards unity, and moving forward I want to get out of my echo chamber.
"One my biggest problems with Trump was the way he divided people, and I think the speech Biden just gave was about us coming together.
"I really hope that has a positive effect. It made me feel better."
Ms Morris has lived in Australia for 10 years and is now eligible to vote here.
She was concerned about an orderly transition of power in the US given Mr Trump's seeming unwillingness to accept the outcome of the vote.
"In every way you can be concerned about the US this year, I have been. I believe anything is possible. I'm going to be concerned for the rest of 2020.
"I'm worried about backlash from his supporters. It's just so volatile; everyone has been on edge and everyone has been angry."
Fellow Southerner Jake Fly, a University of Newcastle law student who lives in Cooks Hill, said it was shocking to think that a smooth transition of power in the US was not a given.
"I'm quietly celebrating. It was a really nice way to wake up this morning," he said.
"I try to vote in all my local elections. I posted my ballot off from the post office in The Junction about a month ago.
"I'm ready to see inauguration day and a peaceful handover of power, which to me is something I never thought I'd say about an election in America.
"I think, in a year when many things have been called unprecedented, that's pretty unprecedented."
He said he had tried to "tune out" Mr Trump's rhetoric.
"Especially the amount that he gets parroted by everyone, not just in the news media.
"If you think four years ago, I don't think anyone really said 'fake news'. Now it's in the lexicon.
"I think that's maybe one of the most dangerous things about Donald Trump. People repeat this stuff that he says."
Mr Fly is from Memphis, where Martin Luther King was assassinated, in the state of Tennessee, where voters went for Mr Trump by a margin of 23 per cent.
"It's tough being from the South. Memphis is like a lot of cities in the South, a lot more progressive than the surrounding areas, and that shows in the election results.
"There's a pocket of people who still feel the way they felt when things were segregated, but they just don't feel as comfortable to speak about it.
"I think Trump made them feel like maybe they could speak about it, which is an unsettling thing about Donald Trump and the role race plays in politics."
He said his Australian friends often expressed disbelief that Mr Trump had been elected.
"I feel like I share a lot of that; I don't understand, either," he said.
"What is really interesting to me, and I think this speaks to how someone like Donald Trump can get elected, is the level of knowledge in Australia about American politics is in some ways higher than the average level of knowledge about American politics that I encountered in my home town.
"It's interesting, but it's also disappointing from the perspective of what that means back home."
Newcastle businessman James Garvey, who voted for Mr Biden in Florida, said the close result "doesn't bode well for unifying people".
"I took great joy when I heard yesterday morning that the secret service had moved in around Joe Biden," he said.
"You could see they had suddenly realised there was going to be a shift in power. It was lovely to see the bureaucracy carry it out and say, 'It's over. This guy's going to win. We've got to go over here.'"
But he predicted that there was "still a bit of shock and awe to come" and "the next two months are going to be a bit ugly".
Mr Garvey, who is from Hartford, Connecticut, but left the US in 1988, said Mr Trump was "like Fonzie", who could never say he was wrong.
"He'll never say the word 'lose'."
He said it had been painful watching the US mishandle COVID-19, "and that's because you had a brand running the country, not a president".
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