It was a family thing. His grandfather hunted in Sicily. His father and uncles took him shooting on mates' properties west of the Great Divide. And he taught his five sons, although his eldest pair, 19-year-old twins, have quit Orange and hunting to play rugby union in Sydney.

Not that long ago such open support for hunting got you howled down in some NSW circles but Mr Donato's sudden and unexpected byelection victory for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party has created a new awareness of what matters in the bush.

Not only has his slim 50-vote win ended the Nationals and Country Party's 68-year unbroken reign in Orange, but it has exposed Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's federal election night boasts about the Nationals being back as the power behind the throne as hot air.

On a more local level, Mr Donato's win has turned Premier Mike Baird's image of teflon and tolerance into last year's news.

Mr Donato said Mr Baird's council amalgamations and the attack on the NSW greyhound industry had made "the Nationals the fall guys".

"Certainly they were the issues that got people riled up and the Nationals copped the flak for being seen as too weak to stand up to Mr Baird's mad rush," he said.

"But the Premier's relentless pursuit of privatisation is so out of step of how things are in the country: we depend on government for jobs, services, access to authority and that all goes when you turn to privatisation as the only thing that really matters.

"The Nationals are supposed to know and understand this, but they've dropped the ball."

His byelection victory has opened the door to all sorts of speculation of how the Coalition and the Nationals particularly will counter the flight of their support to Pauline Hanson's One Nation in the upcoming Western Australia and Queensland state elections.

Mr Donato will not buy into future elections, only to say he expects the Nationals were in for a world of pain as the bush rebels.

A proud hunter he may be, but one day into the job he has learned discretion and preferred to leave any comment on gun control to his two more experienced colleagues in the NSW upper house.

"But I will say this, my background has provided a unique understanding of the illegal and legal use of guns," Mr Donato said.

Mr Donato, a 44-year-old former police prosecutor resigned on Monday from the NSW Police after 22 years.

The NSW Electoral Commission gave the seat to him over the Nationals candidate Scott Barrett; 18,593 votes to 18,543 on preferences.

Mr Donato said the Nationals had not done themselves any favour when their incumbent Andrew Gee resigned to contest and win the seat of Calare in the July federal election.

He acknowledged the difficulties ahead for small political parties in the face of the Liberal, National and Labor juggernauts.

But he won on local issues and thought the only way to retain the seat in the 2019 elections was to fight hard for the locals.

"That's what they respect you for. Not falling over to demands from people far away in Sydney," he said.

"I was elected because people were upset with council amalgamations and the irresponsible treatment of the greyhound industry. I also intend to do everything in my power to ensure the Baird government delivers on the $380 million worth of election promises to Orange it made during the byelection."

Mr Donato grew up in western Sydney and was working in an Italian restaurant in Liverpool as a pastry chef when one of the regulars, a police officer, suggested he consider joining NSW Police.

He worked in stations in Macquarie Fields, Liverpool and Wollongong before starting in 1997 with the drug squad at Cabramatta.

Six years later, he became a police prosecutor. He and his wife Nadia, transferred to Orange in 2005.