Still a few hours to go until polls close but this voter in Sydney arguably wins best dressed of the day.

Michael Iaali, 34, tells the BBC human rights were the most important thing to him as he voted. And yes, he dressed up specially for election day, he says.

Scott Morrison has just cast his ballot in his southern Sydney electorate, Cook, before declaring soon after: "It is just great to be here amongst friends."

The prime minister has spearheaded his government's campaign - often as a one-man band, in contrast to Bill Shorten's more team-based approach - in the five weeks of the campaign.

"I am so up for this because the people of Australia have energised me so much and continue to," he said. "That is why I will burn for them every single day in this job. I am here to serve them."

Image source, EPA

The BBC's Emma Elsworthy has just caught up with former PM Tony Abbott in Warringah, where he is fighting to keep a seat that has been Liberal-held for 25 years. He says he thinks this has been "a pretty personal and at times rather vile campaign".

"But when you’ve been around for as long as I have, you’ve seen it all and you have thick skin... In Australia, polling day is usually a bit of a festival, a bit of a carnival."

Despite the game-changing rise of an Independent - Zali Steggall - in Warringah, Abbott tells our reporter that the issues Australians are voting on issues are "not different" from previous years.

"It’s always who's best to keep the country safe and who's best to keep the economy strong. I think that’s the Liberal party."

He says Steggall’s campaign has been "funded by climate change warriors".

"And they’re perfectly entitled to do that. They’ve chosen her as their candidate and good luck to her."

Gary Nunn
BBC News, Sydney

Pierre Gawronski has brought Caesar the parrot, 11, to the polling station in Sydney.

Pierre says he’s trying to swing the Sydney vote for the Greens because "the environment is pretty important to Caesar - and to his family".

Henry Jacobs
BBC News, Sydney

One of the most fiercely contested regional seats in this year's election is Gilmore on the NSW south coast. Outgoing Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis announced her retirement in 2018, citing lack of support from within the party - before a controversial pre-selection process to choose her replacement.

Real estate agent Grant Schultz was the front-runner after winning the local selection ballot unopposed but was disendorsed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in January in favour of former Labour Labor Party President Warren Mundine - who doesn't live in the electorate.

Mr Schultz is now standing as an independent after resigning from the party, while Ms Sudmalis and Liberal predecessor Joanna Gash have been campaigning for Nationals MP Katrina Hodgkinson.

Local journalist Ian Campbell has been covering the region for 20 years and told the BBC Mr Mundine has "had his knees cut off by the Liberal Party". The beneficiary of the conservative infighting could well be Labor's Fiona Phillips.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made it back to his constituency of Cook, after quick morning dash down to Tasmania. A short while ago he posted this on Twitter, a tribute to his wife. He's been making quite a slogan of "meet someone amazing" on the campaign trail, which fits his message of stability and continuity. Can he convince the voters that's what he will bring?

The last day of campaigning is normally when candidates and party leaders make their last big push for votes in swing seats.

But the death of long-time Labor PM Bob Hawke - a titan of Australian politics - overshadowed Friday's plans. He was popular with both sides of the house, so everyone stopped to pay tribute. Some analysts say this could end up being a boost to Labor, as people are reminded of a time they ran the country.

Michelle O'Neil, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, (in previous picture) said of the posters: "We think this is misleading and it’s illegal to mislead people in this way.

"This is deliberately trying to trick Chinese-speaking people in Australia into thinking this is an approved government direction telling them vote for the Liberal Party.

"I am amazed that it's 1.23 in the afternoon and this sign is still here and on many other booths where there is a large number of Chinese-speaking voters."

The seat is expected to elect either Labor's Jennifer Yang or the Liberals' Gladys Liu.

Danny Vincent
BBC News, Melbourne

A controversy has erupted in the Melbourne seat of Chisholm, an electorate expected to make history by electing the nation's first ever Chinese-Australian MP.

It centres on Chinese language posters seen around the electorate which appear to mimic the colours of the Australian Electoral Commission.

The posters say: "Correct way to vote. On the green voting card, put preference 1 next to the Liberal Party. The other boxes can be numbered from smallest to highest."

Labor has accused the Liberal Party of being behind the posters. The Liberal Party hasn't commented.

Nice images from our reporter Emma Elsworthy, who's over in former PM Tony Abbott's Warringah constituency in northern Sydney.

She caught Abbott chastising Manly resident Oscar Lonergan for disobeying rules which ban any campaigning within six metres of polling booths. Mr Lonergan was wearing a T-shirt saying "Vote Tony Out".

Labor leader Bill Shorten has won the race to be the first of the two major party leaders to post THE image of the day - eating a democracy sausage post-voting.

His post is a wry reference to the same photo op back in 2016, when he shocked the country by attacking his sausage from the side. That's just not how it's done.

They may be in Antarctica but these citizens are still getting the vote out for the homeland.

The Australian Antarctic Division shared this video showing how its staff collect those all-important ballots.

If this picture's anything to go by, it seems there's still a queue for polls at the Poles! (Sorry.)

Here's more from us on Australia's most remote polling stations.

Image source, EPA

Gary Nunn
BBC News, Sydney

This is the first ever federal election Kendall Fraser, 19, has voted in. But not only has she voted - she's also a volunteer. She's handing out ballot papers to voters in the Sydney electorate all day today at Crown Street school.

"As it’s my first vote in a national election, I thought it’d be an even more memorable experience if I was actually part of it behind the scenes," she tells the BBC.

"It’s nice to finally have a say in what goes on," she says. "In high school you see what’s going on but feel powerless to change anything."

And the biggest issue for her? Climate change. "It’s at the forefront of my mind. This is the climate election."

Australians in London over the election have a bit of a treat - they can cast their vote at Australia House, home of the Australian High Commission. Why is this fun? Because it's also the location of Gringott's Bank in the Harry Potter Films. This has not gone uncommented on this week on social media.

So how are the 151 seats in the lower house decided?

Well, it's all about the TPP - the two-party preferred measure (ie not the Trans-Pacific Partnership). Australia uses preferential voting, which means each ballot is numbered by voters from their most to least preferred.

Candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated, but votes for them are still counted - they just go to the next preference. It all rolls up until a seat is left with two candidates - and a winner is chosen.

Australia is really, really big. Its biggest constituency is about the same size as Mexico, slightly bigger than Mongolia.

At 1.6m sq km Durack, in Western Australia, is the second-biggest single member constituency in the world, after Nunavut, in Canada. It covers about 60% of all of the state of WA. Most people live in small towns or settlements and work in mining or farming. It's currently held by Liberal MP Melissa Price, Minister for the Environment.

Here's more on the massive scale of Australia's election.

The BBC's Henry Jacobs is keeping an eye on what's going on in rural constituencies.

He's flagged this image of Labor candidate for the key central Queensland seat of Capricornia - Russell Robertson - posing with volunteers at Emu Park State School.

Henry tells us: "The traditionally Labor electorate has been held by Liberal National Party (LNP) MP Michelle Landry since 2013 and - with a margin of just 0.6% - will be closely watched when counting gets under way later this evening.

"Mr Robertson, a third-generation miner, has campaigned heavily for more jobs and infrastructure in the region - which is largely reliant on the mining industry. The seat has been won by the party who went on to form government in the last four elections."

Some people have been calling this a "generational election" - with ages divided over what matters most.

The BBC spoke to these young people who were protesting in Queensland earlier this week. They told us that whoever wins will need to take climate change seriously, saying it's "the number one issue for Australia".

In the run up to this 2019 election, we thought we'd take a look at how Australia has changed in recent years and how that affects how people will vote.

This striking chart might be cause for concern for candidates today - showing quite how much the public's faith in "how democracy works" has dropped over the past two decades.

It's been of our most-read pieces of election coverage this week - take a look: 2019 Australia election in 11 charts