For some of the candidates who unsuccessfully contested Mallee, Saturday's result was not an end, but a beginning.
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United Australia Party candidate Rick Millar said he would stay involved in matters of public policy over the next three years and build up his contacts in the community as he sought to run again in 2022.
Rise Up Australia Party's Phillip Mollison said he would also run again for his party at the next election if it considered him their best option as a candidate.
Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party candidate Rick Grosvenor also said he would be happy to run again.
Other candidates said they will leave the experience of campaigning to sit in federal parliament with some important pearls of wisdom about representing Mallee.
Citizens' Electoral Council candidate Chris Lahy said there was a need to educate Wimmera residents on how the Murray-Darling Basin Plan affected them, after water management was a vote-deciding issue in the top half of the electorate.
"We have to work harder to get people further south understanding what the plan is and isn't doing," he said.
"I've forged a good relationship with the Independents Ray (Kingston), Cecilia (Moar) and Jason (Modica), and I'm sure that will continue."
Greens candidate Nicole Rowan and Ms Moar both said the new Member for Mallee needed to make themselves available to as many people as possible as a priority.
"I think that's an issue that has particularly grown in the Mallee" Ms Rowan said.
"It's not feasible to have just one electorate office, so the new member needs to work with parliamentary decision makers so people can be supported to meet with their representative when they need to."
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers' Dan Straub said it was important candidates reflected on their campaigns with people they trusted.
"When I ran for the seat of Murray Plains in last year's state election, I spent all day at the voting centre in Kyabram," he said.
"When the voting centre closed, and I was on my own, I had a very emotional moment: I realised after several weeks it was all beyond my control. Campaigning and the aftermath can take an emotional toll."
Independent Jason Modica said the election had taught him how important it was people understood how the political system worked, especially if they wanted to run for office themselves.
"This campaign has been a unique one to go through: there have been ideas floated that fall outside the parameters of a usual campaign in Mallee," he said.
"If anyone believes they can make a change in how we do politics, they should put their hand up."