Both Ms King and her campaign manager Craig Fletcher credited the hard work of her team and volunteers across the electorate for the win.

While ballots are still being counted - postal votes were not included in Saturday's count - as of 10pm Saturday, with 45,000 votes counted, Ms King secured 44.22 per cent of the vote.

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow The Courier's live election night blog, or check out our friends at the Canberra Times for their national coverage

This means a swing against her of 3.54 per cent.

On a two-party preferred basis, against the Liberals' Ben Green, it's a 2.52 per cent swing towards her, at 62.75 to 37.25.

Speaking to The Courier before the ABC called the election for Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, Ms King said it was "the most humbling experience".

"Just talking to people, hearing stories, hearing from people we've helped and people we could have done better for, all of those things are a really humbling experience, and you never know what the outcome is going to be," she said.

"I know what progressive Labor governments do for our city, and that's what I've desperately wanted to happen."

She thanked Mr Green for a well-fought campaign, and acknowledged Greens candidate John Barnes, who increased his vote significantly.

"To the Liberal candidate, I do say thank you very much, it's not an easy thing to do, particularly when you've got such a short time frame, to get yourself known and really rebuild a bit, and I respect very much he's put his name forward to do that, and certainly to John Barnes, the Greens candidate, he'd be very happy with the result, he's a well-respected member of our community, and I know he'll be very proud of himself and his party as he should be," she said.

Ms King and the Labor Party, should they take office, have a number of promises to fulfill - from restructuring the electricity transmission infrastructure application process and acting on climate change, to rebuilding the Sebastopol Senior Citizens Centre, cleaning up the Yarrowee, and building new crisis accommodation for people escaping domestic violence in Ballarat.

Her campaign manager, Craig Fletcher, said there was a dedicated team of volunteers working behind the scenes.

"(This win) is a reflection of Catherine's hard work, being out in the electorate, knocking on doors, speaking face to face with people,and getting an understanding of the things that matter to the people of Ballarat - then responding to that and providing a vision for the future," he said.

"Each campaign is a new event and strategy that needs to happen, it's learning from what you've done before, seeking to improve that, and continuing to close the loop by listening to people.

"People are concerned about what's occurring in Ballarat, but there are wider issues that go across the whole country - the cost of living, the price of petrol, the fact that interest rates are on the rise - they want to see some solutions, and that combined with an appetite for environmental change, to do something about climate change, those things have currency both across the country and in Ballarat."

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Ms King said she was ready to continue fighting hard for her eighth term.

"I still feel the same energy and care and compassion for people as I did when I stood back as a pretty green, naive 36-year-old, who'd been involved in politics but didn't really know a lot about how to do the job, and I've learned to do the job," she said.

"It's more and more evident that people are crying out for better politics, better discourse, and you've seen that in the rise in the Greens vote and the rise in the independents, in some of the Liberal heartland seats, that people are saying they want their voices heard."

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