Jamie Chaffey and Colleen Fuller hold almost 60 per cent of first preference votes in Gunnedah

More than 5,800 formal votes had been counted at the time of writing, and those two lead the way convincingly ahead of Murray O'Keefe and newcomer Kate McGrath.

Ms Fuller, who has already served four terms on council, said her secret to remaining so popular is just to take community concerns seriously.

"If you want to be a councillor then you go out there with the right attitude and you go in there to work for the community and that's number one for me," she said.

"You always work for the community and I say to people 'if you're in local government then it's for local people', and that's my attitude."

The last couple of years have been among her most difficult on council as drought, COVID-19 restrictions and the health crisis in town have tested the resolve of the community.

But she is keen to tackle those problems as best she can alongside Cr Chaffey and the rest of the council, which looks set to include a couple of new faces.

It appears likely two out of three will be elected from Juliana McArthur, Robert Hoddle and Peter Wills, with the former leading the way.

Incumbent councillors Anne Luke and David Moses are well in the reckoning, while deputy mayor Robert Hooke sits narrowly ahead of Mr Wills, Michael Silver and Wendy Eriksen.

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Ms McGrath, who has collected the third most amount of votes so far, admitted to being thrilled with the result.

"I didn't expect to do so well, I was hopeful I would get in but at the moment I'm sitting at third which is really good," she said.

Should that momentum continue as the rest of the votes are counted, she would become the youngest member of council, and believes that as a young mother she can offer a different perspective.

"A lot of people that I've spoken to have voted for myself and also for Murray O'Keefe, and we sit at the different end of the spectrum in terms of a lot of views, but the fact is we both have young children," she said.

"We're both kind of dealing with the same issues in terms of access to childcare and the standard of education in our town.

"So those sorts of things really do impact people's day to day lives more than some of the other issues that perhaps the older councillors are focused on."

With an indigenous husband and son, Ms McGrath has a significant interest in issues facing the Aboriginal population, and said that would also be among her priorities.

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