Kelly Ng
Reporting from Brisbane

Some swearing could be heard as the networks called Labor's win. Large groups of people are staring at the screens now. There's still a lot of chatter going on though I can see some dejected faces around the room.

The election call by the ABC's Antony Green has been the gold standard here for over three decades. Here's what he had to say when declaring Labor had won just moments ago.

On the Coalition, he said they're going to need some miracles to hold on to many seats.

"They would need to have loaves and fishes, I think. It is a big swing and I cannot see how it turns around... it is bad news everywhere for them."

In winning the election, Anthony Albanese will become the first Prime Minister to win back-to-back elections since John Howard in 2004.

We continue to bring you preliminary results. With 4.9% of votes counted, here is how the composition of the House of Representatives is taking shape.

Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney

It's still early days in terms of counting in many seats across the country - but already Labor has been declared the winner of this election.

It's quite a remarkable turnaround from the start of the year, when polling put PM Anthony Albanese's popularity at record lows after three years of global economic pain, tense national debate, and growing government dissatisfaction.

"Dutton entered the campaign [year] in front. It was his to lose," one political expert told me earlier today.

Labor has won the election and will form government, either in minority or majority, Australia's national broadcaster the ABC has declared.

Katy Watson
Reporting from Sydney

It’s still early in the count - less than 5% of votes have been counted - but confidence is building at the Labor watch HQ. All signs are pointing to a good night for Labor.

There have been several early swings to Labor on the east coast and the state of Tasmania too. This is far better than many had dared to expect at the start of the campaign and it’s given people here a boost early on.

Not such a good night for opposition leader Peter Dutton though - it’s looking like he could struggle to hang on to his seat of Dickson.

Dutton’s campaign wasn’t smooth, the general feeling was he didn’t offer enough substance in his policies to convince people of a change - especially at a time when the world is being shaken up, voters perhaps playing it safe with the politician they know.

But the count is still very much underway, with more projections to come.

While we're on the topic of Dickson, here's how things are looking in that seat so far.

As we reported a couple posts ago, these results are causing some angst among Liberal supporters in Brisbane, but our reporters at Labor HQ in Sydney and the election night party of 'teal' Independent Monique Ryan say they're prompting cheers there.

Of course, worth stressing again that there are still plenty of ballots to be counted here.

As we’ve been explaining, young voters are playing an important role in this election, with those under 45 making up nearly half of the 18 million people enrolled to vote.

Who they cast their ballot for is especially important in key marginal seats, as Professor Philippa Collins from the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University explains.

She tells the BBC News Channel that, for example, in Queensland's Dickson electorate – where the opposition leader Peter Dutton is the incumbent - there is a relatively small margin and a significant youth vote.

“Whether Dutton retains his seat will likely depend upon how young people think he has performed during the election campaign,” says Collins.

“Young voters tend to punish incumbents when they’re really unhappy with the state of the economy.”

Polls have closed in Western Australia, which means most of those across the country have closed.

The last polling booths - in the far-flung Australian territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands - will close in about half an hour - at 12:30 GMT.

Kelly Ng
Reporting from Brisbane

Rick is a resident in opposition leader Peter Diutton's seat of Dickson and says he is disappointed with the way early counts are going:

"It doesn't seem to be going well... If Peter Dutton loses his seat, that will be really sad."

The overall results could be a "real rout", says the retiree, who recently joined the Liberal National Party (LNP).

He says he thought more younger people would have voted for the Coalition, with cost of living among their most pressing concerns.

"Maybe they didn't like his nuclear policy," he says. "I think people couldn't understand Dutton's policies."

Here's a quick look at the preliminary results in Queensland:

Kelly Ng
Reporting from Brisbane

Liberal-National coalition supporters are trickling into a Brisbane ballroom to watch the results come in. Some are wearing blue T-shirts with the name of the party's candidates printed on them.

Many, however, seem on their guard around journalists, declining to comment.

One lady handling registration told me quite curtly "you may not have much of a chance to mingle with volunteers tonight".

Katy Watson and Simon Atkinson
reporting from the Labor watch party in Sydney

The first noticeable cheers have come from the Labor watch party - as the ABC is showing an early swing towards Labor in Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson in Queensland.

The Labor party has gathered in a social club in Sydney's Inner West.

It'll be here, in a few hours, that Anthony Albanese will either claim victory - or admit defeat - but people here seem confident about a win.

The large conference room is decked out in red and offering free cans of ‘Albo Pale Ale’. It's filling up with journalists and Labor party supporters alike.

Thomas Brown, 24, has come with his mum and younger brother Arlo. Their grandfather John Brown was a minister of tourism and sport in the 1980s.

“I'm very confident for a majority and for a smaller Liberal party in the lower house as well,” he says, adding that his confidence has definitely grown over the course of the campaign.

People have become more engaged in politics these past few weeks, he says. “Peter Dutton hasn't helped himself either,” he says. "He's had a pretty poor campaign.”.

Local broadcaster ABC is reporting very early figures for the nationwide vote: Albanese's Labor has 34.6%, Dutton's Coalition has 31.3%, and 12.4% has gone to the Greens led by Adam Bandt.

But just a note of caution: this is still early days, with less than 5% of the vote counted so far, and it is unclear how this could translate into seats won and lost.

Finbar O'Mallon
Reporting from Melbourne

I'm at the Auburn Hotel in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong, the closely watched electorate that is a contest between independent incumbent Dr Monique Ryan and Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer.

Volunteers were hoping for the best tonight but also grateful the grueling election campaign is over.

“It felt really intense but we just stayed positive,” Isabel Catterall, 19, who volunteered for the Ryan campaign said.

Her friend, Henry Moore, 20, said they'd been yelled at on the street or abused by volunteers from other parties.

It's to be expected. We just move on, we don't let it affect us,” he said.

As young voters, they both backed Ryan because of her desire to do more on climate change.

“She doesn't have to toe the party line or listen to the party,” Moore said.

Image source, ABC

Antony Green, Australian Broadcasting Corporation's chief election analyst, has just started calling his last federal election after more than three decades of service.

Green is described as an "Australian institution and much-loved figure with the public", by ABC's director of news, Justin Stevens.

He is seen as a steady hand for millions of Australians tuning in to make sense of the chaos after the polls closed.

Speaking to the BBC earlier, Green appeared to take his last election outing in stride.

Asked if he was sentimental about his departure?

"Not particularly," he replied.

Kelly Ng
Reporting from Brisbane

Image source, BBC/Kelly Ng

I'm now at the Coalition's watch party in a hotel in the heart of Queensland's capital city.

The ballroom is still fairly empty at this point, occupied mostly by journalists, party volunteers and security personnel.

Right now they are live-streaming early count coverage from Sky News and ABC.

Simon Atkinson
BBC News, Sydney

Image source, BBC/Simon Atkinson

In a few hours time we’ll see Anthony Albanese here - either to claim victory, concede defeat or to say it’s all still a bit unclear.

The counting of votes stops at midnight.

Whether they’re for celebrating or drowning sorrows, buckets of iced Albo beer is ready for the Labor faithful.

Image source, BBC/Simon Atkinson

There has been some search online about what would happen if either of the main party leaders - the next potential prime ministers - lost their seat.

In that scenario they would no longer be an MP and so could not lead their party. Anthony Albanese’s seat is very safe.

But earlier we reported that Peter Dutton only won his Dickson seat with a slim 1.7% margin - the narrowest lead in all of Queensland. If he lost Dickson, the Liberals would have to find a new leader - which would be chaotic if they won the election.

Dutton, who has been calling on the support of "quiet Australians” to deliver him victory at the ballot box, has said he is confident he’ll win his seat.

By the way, the last time a serving leader was not re-elected was in 2007, when Prime Minister John Howard lost Sydney's Bennelong (though his party also lost their seat election). And the only other time it has happened was in 1929.

As we mentioned earlier, counting has begun in parts of Australia, while polls remain open for a couple more hours in some regions, as the country spans three time zones. Here are scenes from Brisbane, Queensland, where Australian Electoral Commission staff are counting votes.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA