The South Coast has elected Liza Butler as its second Labor representative in 96 years.
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Ms Butler's victory follows on from the retirement of Liberal Shelley Hancock after 20 years representing the region.
Ms Butler learnt of her win shortly before 8pm on Saturday, when the ALP head office called her to say she had won.
She said she was reluctant to celebrate at the time, but when she walked into a room full of ALP supporters they broke into cheering because an elections analyst had given the seat to the ALP.
"My heart was nearly jumping out of my chest," Ms Butler said.
While there was a big swing to Labor across the state, Ms Butler said local issues played key role in the South Coast result.
"I think there was a lot of local issues and for me to have won the South Coast just shows you what the need and the concerns in the community were," she said.
"The concerns of the community showed me they were ready for a change, and they needed to be listened to."
Ms Butler said her immediate priorities focused on listening to members of the community, and working with them on Ulladulla High School, the Milton Hospital, and addressing housing problems in East Nowra.
"We're going to get the ENSA [East Nowra Sub Arterial] Road up and running, there's footpaths to do - it's a really exciting time," she said.
When counting closed on Saturday night Ms Butler was just 182 votes ahead of Liberal opponent Luke Sikora - 9936 to 9754, however a strong vote for Greens candidate and Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley led to computer modeling suggesting Ms Butler would end up with 54.5 per cent of the two-party preferred count.
Mr Sikora said the big swing against the Liberals across the state was "something the Liberal Party needs to look into".
"We've abandoned our voters, we've abandoned our core constituency," he said.
"Clearly, the broader message from the Liberal Party didn't resonate with South Coast voters, and voters never get it wrong."
Mr Sikora said the Liberal Party had spent too much time looking inwardly with factional brawling, factional fighting and preselection issues resulting on people seeing a party more concerned with itself than governing the state.
"As a local candidate in the field for the past five months that's really difficult to overcome," he said.
