Breaking down how our region voted in the Voice referendum

The two polling stations to vote in favour of the Voice were both in Armidale, where the Madgwick polling station at the University of New England's Austin College in Armidale recorded 60 per cent 'yes' votes and the South Armidale polling station at Armidale City Public School recorded 59 per cent.

The local result closely mirrors its national counterpart; not a single regional electorate voted in favour of the Voice to Parliament. The few electorates that did vote yes were all located in inner-metro areas.

And with opposition leader Peter Dutton pulling back on a pledge for a second referendum, Australians are unlikely to get another chance to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution in the near future.

Rural politicians say the referendum result highlights the Labor party's "terrible listening skills" when it comes to the regions.

"The referendum highlighted a significant divide between the responses of those in cities compared to regional areas, and I want to make the point that Labor needs to start genuinely listening to the regions instead of existing in urban echo chambers if it wants to lead," Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton said.

The city of Tamworth had eight polling stations, with one operating as a pre-poll voting centre for early voters and another doubling up for both pre-poll and on-the-day voting.

The most popular polling station was at 515 Peel Street, where more than 17,000 people voted across pre-poll and on referendum day.

The 'yes' side had a notable turnout at the station on voting day, garnering 944 votes, to 436 received by the 'no' side.

But the pre-polling results from the same station paints a very different picture, with 12,331 people putting in early 'no' votes compared to only 3213 from the 'yes' side, which indicates a stronger 'hard no' vote than recent polling data suggested.

The same result played out at Tamworth's six other polling stations, with East Tamworth recording a 58 per cent 'no' vote, North Tamworth at 65 per cent 'no', South Tamworth at 71 per cent 'no', West Tamworth at 70 per cent 'no', Peel West at 72 per cent 'no', and Hillvue West at 72 per cent 'no'.

Tamworth's dedicated pre-poll voting centre at the Southside Uniting Church was the city's second-most popular polling centre and posted an 82 per cent 'no' vote out of 4461 total votes.

While Tamworth does have a higher Indigenous population than the nationwide average - nearly 13 per cent compared to 3 per cent nationwide - the figures do not necessarily reflect how the city's Indigenous community voted.

The 'yes' vote in polling catchments where Indigenous Australians formed more than 50 per cent of the population was, on average, 63 per cent in favour of enshrining an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, according to political analyst Simon Jackman.

Armidale had six polling stations, one of which doubled as a pre-poll voting centre.

Similar to Tamworth's doubled-up station, the results from the station at Armidale Town Hall reflected a stronger 'yes' vote on referendum day than it did in pre-poll, barely eking out a 50.4 per cent majority on the day.

However, adding in pre-poll votes flips that result to a 62 per cent 'no' vote from Armidale's most popular polling centre, with nearly 13,000 votes in total.

Armidale also had the only two polling stations in New England to record a majority of 'yes' vote: South Armidale and Madgwick.

The other stations; Armidale West, Ben Venue, and Newling, each recorded relatively slim 'no' majorities with 52 per cent, 50.7 per cent, and 54 per cent voting 'no' respectively.

Smaller towns across the region had an overwhelming proportion of people voting 'no' in the referendum, with some recording more than 90 per cent against the Voice.

The percentage of 'no' votes in Tamworth's surrounding towns were similar across the board, ranging from the high 70s to low 80s rejecting the proposal.

Nundle and Quirindi both recorded a 77 per cent majority, 79 per cent voted 'no' in Barraba, Kootingal and Bendemeer both received 80 per cent 'no' votes, and Manilla had the strongest support for 'no' at 81 per cent.

NB: The figures in this article come from the latest count by the Australian Electoral Commission and are liable to change as the final counting concludes in the coming days.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: