Election 2016: everything you need to know.

The barbeques have been packed up and put away, the scrutineers are heading home for the night and the staffers who have worked 18 hours days, seven days a week for eight weeks are either rip rollickingly drunk or sound asleep.

For psephologists (that’s nerd talk for people who have perhaps too strong an interest in election results) though, it’s been a very big night.

No result tonight.

The thinking woman’s nerd crumpet, Antony Green says there won’t be a clear result tonight. The Labor Party have picked up a number of seats, the Nick Xenophon team have picked up one in South Australia, and there are many more too close to call.

As we head to bed, there is a strong possibility of a hung parliament.

This will place Malcolm Turnbull in a very tricky position. He will have to negotiate with the crossbenchers to form government and get the legislation that had triggered the double dissolution through a joint sitting of the parliament.

It will also have implications for Malcolm Turnbull's internal mandate in the Liberal party.

Turnbull's leadership was not strong to begin with, having compromised on issues he had previously been strong on; climate change and marriage equality, to win the Prime Ministership.

A weak election result will likely place his hold on the Liberal Party leadership in danger; Andrew Bolt called for his resignation less than four hours after the close of polls.

First female Indigenous member of the House of Representatives.

Linda Burney, leading figure of the NSW Labor party and former member of the NSW Upper House, has won the suburban Sydney seat of Barton. She will be sworn in as the first female Indigenous member of the House of Representatives.

Whatever your personal politics are, that's worth celebrating.

A minor independent party at the Greens house.

Public opinion polling in the lead up to Election Day showed strong movement towards the Greens, minor parties and independent candidates.

Long time candidate, Alex Bhathal is in a strong position to pick up the inner city Melbourne seat of Batman for the Greens, while Labor's Michael Danby could be in serious trouble from the Greens in his electorate of Melbourne Ports.

The Nick Xenophon team have picked up the formerly safe Liberal seat of Mayo, partly attributable to the demise of former Coalition Minister Jamie Briggs who was demoted after allegations of sexual harrassment were made against him by a public servant.

Nick Xenophon's candidates put in strong performances across South Australia more broadly, and particularly in the regional seat of Grey.

Unsurprisingly, without the party's namesake in the mix, the Palmer United Party lost their lower house seat and look to disappear into the annals of history.

States of origin.

Tasmania took a step to the left, with the Liberal losing all three of the seats they held, Labor picking up Bass, Braddon and Lyons.

NSW also swang back to the Labor side, with Labor picking up suburban seats like Barton as well as semi-regional seats like Macquarie, Macarthur, Dobell and Paterson.

QLD delivered a number of seats of the ALP, including Wyatt Roy from Longman who currently serves on the Turnbull frontbench.

Bucking previous trends, the ALP lost ground in Victoria, losing the suburban Melbourne seat of Chisholm to the Liberal party, and looking to lose Batman and possibly even Melbourne Ports to the Greens.

What next?

In case you'd forgotten, and you'd be forgiven if you had because it was a long time ago, we went to the polls today because Malcolm Turnbull asked the Governor-General for a double dissolution.

A double dissolution election requires that the bills that triggered it must be presented to both the house and the senate again. If a deadlock (where the house and the senate disagree on the bill) occurs again, the Governor-General can order a joint sitting of Parliament to force a final decision on the bill.

A joint sitting has only occured once before.