"We are looking at one of the world's great outsiders. This is a victory for the citizens."

In Canberra, One Nation senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts toasted the election of a man who challenges the political establishment.

Former Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop was among the Sydney crowd of mainly middle-aged white men who had been glued all day to a live feed of election coverage from Fox News in the US.

While the Rugby Club bar is a far cry from the billionaire's glamorous Trump Tower in New York, each time the outspoken presidential hopeful won a key state such as Ohio they shouted and cheered loudly.

Mrs Bishop, who joined the crowd around lunchtime, says America is in for a "shake up".

She has fond memories of meeting Mr Trump in Washington when George W Bush Snr was being inaugurated as president.

"He was a perfectly reasonable, sensible human being," she told AAP.

Mrs Bishop likened Mr Trump's critics to those of Bush's predecessor Ronald Reagan when he ran for president.


"Initially they threw a lot of mud at him but he turned out to be a wonderful and much-loved president," she said.

The mood was much more dour a stone's throw away at the more upmarket Morrison bar, where hundreds of Mrs Clinton's supporters had spent the day.

When they began cramming into the bar before lunchtime, the mood was hopeful, and even celebratory.

As the day wore on and Mr Trump pushed into the lead the mood began to sour amid the American fries, chilli dogs and beer on offer.

Dual American-Australia citizen Catherine Weinress was upset as she watched Mr Trump gain more and more ground.

"I'm distressed that there are this many Americans who can look past his [Trump's] misogyny and racism," she said.

Many of Mrs Clinton's supporters at the Democrats Abroad event struggled to make sense of a Trump victory.

"It's not even real. This isn't actually happening. This is a nightmare," Virginia expat Veronica Eulate told AAP.

"[We're] beyond shell-shocked, gutted."

AAP