SFF Candidate Roy Butler has secured 33.47 per cent of the primary vote, narrowly ahead of Nationals candidate Andrew Schier (31.53 per cent) and Labor's entrant and Broken Hill mayor, Darriea Turley (19.43 per cent).

Retiring Nationals MP Kevin Humphries has held the seat since 2007 and his party has had an unbroken hold on the electorate since 1950.

Mr Butler began his listening tour in April 2018 and made a commitment to meet with members of the community in every town in the electorate to hear their concerns.

Mr Butler ran on key issues, including water and public health and jobs and better services for the regions. His main message for people is "Barwon deserves better", and current polls show the electorate confirms that. 

Member for Parkes Mark Coulton told 2WEB on Monday that he believes people in the electorate have sent a clear message on Saturday night that they wanted more to be done in the west.

"A lot of people are frustrated, weary and a probably bit angry largely because of the drought and the conditions around it," Mr Coulton said.

"I think the fact also that the Labor party pretty well deserted their candidate from Broken Hill and went to the Shooters, that was the clincher.

"If you look across all the booths, Andrew Schier did very well but the biggest settlement that the only city in Barwon is Broken Hill and they got behind the shooters and that's been the clincher."

"There's a very high percentage of postal votes in Barwon, so I think it will be a couple of days before the polls declared."

Mr Butler currently lives in Mendooran where he runs a cattle farm with his family.

Mr Butler, a former alcohol and drug counsellor, said the backlash against the Nationals comes from a sense that the people believe they have been "abandoned and ignored."

"It is an issue for the Nationals but it's an issue of their own making in a lot of ways," he told ABC TV.

"This is the price they pay for regional neglect. We can demonstrate that people have asked government to do things, they've asked them to stop doing things, and government carries on regardless."

The early count indicates the SFF party could claim three seats in the NSW lower house, including Barwon.

Incumbent Philip Donato extended his margin in the central west electorate of Orange, while Helen Dalton is on track to unseat Nationals MP Austin Evans in south-western based seat of Murray.