"LNP number two votes were going to One Nation, they were very disciplined and followed the how to vote card," he said. On the other hand, Mr Andrew said he believed the Mackay community wanted change. Mr Pearce was elected as the member for Broadsound in 1989, moved to the electorate of Fitzroy and retired in 2009, before winning Mirani in 2015, determined to ban 100 per cent fly-in fly out-mines and reform labour hire laws. He said he did not plan to return to politics and intended to enjoy a holiday. University of Queensland Law School Professor Graeme Orr said One Nation would win Mirani because their first preference vote was high in the seat.

Professor Orr said generally, One Nation did well in the Queensland election. "Of 61 seats they contested, in 23 they ran second on the primary vote," he said. "That's quite a base, stretching from Ipswich/ Logan to the far north, peaking in non-urban areas." However, Professor Orr said One Nation's challenges included being polarising and therefore attracting limited preferences and not being concentrated geographically, unlike Katter's Australian Party, which had won two seats and could pick up another. Labor put One Nation last on its how to vote cards, while the LNP preferenced One Nation above Labor in about half the electorates.

One Nation preferenced against sitting MPs, which cost LNP politicians some seats in Brisbane. University of Queensland Law School Professor Graeme Orr said for a middle party to do well, it needed to get a primary vote in the 30 per cent range and attract enough preferences from other parties. Professor Orr said there were a lot of three or even four-cornered contests in the 2017 election. "Hence the complex count and uncertainty," he said. "The order of exclusion of candidates is critical in preferential voting in seats where numerous candidates poll 'well'.

"For a 'middle' party (ONP is neither major nor minor) to do well in our system, it needs to be in the 30 per cent-plus range in close seats and to not alienate other party supporters so it attracts sufficient preferences, to build that 30 per cent-plus into a final 50 per cent plus one vote in a particular seat." In another example, One Nation also came in second in Lockyer, but Labor came third and preferenced the LNP above One Nation, which helped the LNP - which was in first place - win. Griffith University political expert Paul Williams said One Nation did not win more seats because their primary vote was not high enough. "It's very hard to win a seat, even with preferences, if you're under 33 per cent," he said. "This election will be remembered for the preference spray - preferences were going in all different directions."

Labor member for Mirani Jim Pearce has lost his seat to a One Nation candidate. Credit:Facebook Dr Williams said One Nation's campaign also suffered gaffes. "There are over 3 million voters on Saturday and pre-poll, there's probably 3 million reasons why people vote the way they did," he said. Queensland University of Technology Professor Clive Bean said Mr Andrew's success in Mirani owed a lot to managing to beat the LNP candidate into second place and then benefiting from the preference flows. "The lack of success in the rest of the state reflects the usual minor party syndrome of not quite getting enough votes to be really competitive in single member electorates," he said.

"In Queensland previously One Nation had managed to attract concentrated pockets of support but less so this time. This time its vote was too evenly spread." Professor John Wanna, with Griffith University, said if One Nation had secured another 5 per cent in about five seats, they would have won those five seats. "They're very competitive in a lot of seats," he said. The major parties have secured 69.4 per cent of the primary vote, the lowest result in decades. One Nation won 13.6 per cent of the primary vote across the state, but pulled between 9.1 and 34.4 per cent in the seats in which it ran.