Indigenous politician Marion Scrymgour has formally claimed a narrow victory in the Northern Territory electorate of Lingiari, ensuring the vast bush seat remains in Labor hands.
Ms Scrymgour had been in a tight contest for the seat with the Country Liberal Party's Damien Ryan, and Ms Scrymgour was ahead by about 1,000 votes on two-party preferred terms throughout the week.
But on Friday afternoon, Ms Scrymgour said an updated vote count made her confident she would maintain her lead.
"There's still some outstanding [votes] but the way the trend is going on the votes, I'm happy to claim victory in the seat of Lingiari," she said.
The ABC's election analyst, Antony Green, called the seat for Labor on Sunday.
The seat, which covers basically all the NT outside of Darwin, has been held by Labor stalwart Warren Snowdon since it was established in 2001.
But Coalition heavyweights had been circling the electorate in the lead-up to polling day, hoping Mr Snowdon's retirement would help them flip the seat to the CLP for the first time.
Decline in Labor's bush support
Labor went on to suffer a swing against it, partly driven by a decline in support across many remote polling booths.
Its previous margin of 5.5 per cent has slimmed to about 1.5 per cent according to the current tally.
Ms Scrymgour conceded the party had lost support across the bush — traditionally a strong Labor support base — but insisted remote voters still had faith in the party.
"I'm daunted by the work that's ahead and certainly the breadth of this seat," she said.
"There's a lot of issues facing the whole of the territory, but more importantly, people that live in Lingiari.
Ms Scrymgour thanked voters in Lingiari and the other candidates who contested the seat.
It is unclear if Mr Ryan, a former Alice Springs mayor, has formally conceded defeat.
New chapter in long political career
The Tiwi Islands woman's victory adds another Indigenous voice to the federal Labor government's party ranks, and opens another chapter in her significant political career.
Ms Scrymgour's election to Northern Territory parliament in the remote seat of Arafura in 2001 made her the first Indigenous woman ever to take a seat in the legislative assembly.
She then rose through Territory Labor's ranks to the role of Deputy Chief Minister, becoming the highest-ranked Indigenous Australian woman in Australian political history as she did so.
She retired from NT politics after briefly defecting from the party in 2012, and later became CEO of a regional council and an Indigenous health organisation.
Her next high-profile role was as head of the powerful native title body the Northern Land Council, following months of internal organisational turmoil.
She was preselected in Lingiari in March last year and relocated to Alice Springs.
Her re-entry into politics means, with Labor's Malarndirri McCarthy and the CLP's Jacinta Price in the senate, three of the Northern Territory's four representatives in Canberra will be Indigenous women.
"No-one would've imagined, years ago, that three Aboriginal women would be representing the Northern Territory federally," Ms Scrymgour said.
"I think that says a lot about the Northern Territory and people that live in the Northern Territory — that they feel comfortable, that they feel good about sending three Aboriginal women to represent their views in federal parliament."
She said she would work to secure timelines on her party's key local election promises, including $14 million for crime prevention in Alice Springs and $100 million for urgent housing repairs on remote homelands.
