The NSW Senator, from Young, has also become the first woman elected to a leadership position for the Nationals, after winning a keenly contested ballot against six men for the deputy’s position last Thursday night.

That puts her at the side of the new Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and catapults her straight from a junior ministerial position, into Australia’s political heartland - prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s cabinet.

“There were seven people running - I could not have predicted the outcome - I was just hopeful I was still in the hunt - so it was a huge surprise,” she said of Thursday night’s election.

But amid these dizzying heights, Fiona, 50, hasn’t forgotten what propelled her into that position.

She’ll be the first to tell you she is much more comfortable trudging around farms and into town in her dirty work gear than she is gliding down Canberra’s corridors of power.

“I was in IGA the other day talking to Robert Donges and I was wearing my work clothes and a pink floppy hat - Robert said to me, ‘you like that hat because you can hide under it’,” Fiona said laughing.

“How life changes,” she added.

She might have been born and bred in Sydney but Fiona Nash says she wasn’t born a city person, “I was born with a country gene”.

In an interview with The Witness on Friday she said home - a grazing property at Greenethorpe she shares with husband Rob Nash and two sons Will and Henry - and the surrounding district of Young are the things she holds closest.

And it is this country gene and all that she holds close that she maintains will be at her core as she steps into the new role with 10 and a half years of political notches to her belt.

“I simply am here to make sure that things are going better in regional and rural areas… and by that I mean health, tertiary education, infrastructure, communications and employment,” Fiona said

“We need to really make things sure and strong for our children and grandchildren so they either stay or come back home,” she said.

Of the new role she said her life will change in that her work responsibilities will be heavier and, as part of the leadership team, it will be busier.

There to celebrate with her Thursday night was Rob with the possibility of “a proper celebration” down the track.