"If I can get something back for the rural side of the ACT, in particular Tharwa, which has been kicked in the guts since we had self-government and hasn't been helped one little bit, I would just really be very very proud and satisfied ... even if it's only to fix the bloody old water supply," he said.

"You can start off in Tharwa dealing with the hooning and drug-dealing episodes and things like that, just picking rubbish up off the road."

Mr Jeffery, 81, for 38 years a captain of the local bushfire brigade and also a critic of the response to the 2003 bushfires, is still deeply concerned about Canberra's bushfire readiness, saying there isn't even a formal line of command for "us fellas on the ground".

"It's a bloody disgrace," he said. "We lost 500 houses in 2003 and [four] lives, and we haven't learned a little bit out of it. We are a lot worse off than we were then in preparedness for bushfires and I am disgusted and worried tremendously about the situation in the ACT ... It might be next year, it might be 10 years later, but we're setting ourselves up for a major disaster. I've seen it more than once."

At 81, Mr Jeffery has seen many things more than once, but this is his first stint in a parliament – a role he said he was taking one step at a time.

What's at the top of his list for the next two weeks of sittings?

"Flat out getting there, I suppose," he responded.

How does it feel? "Well, just another day," he said of his historic election, the oldest person to have been elected to the ACT Parliament, and perhaps in Australia, although that conjecture has not been confirmed.

"I've been around long enough that I don't get excited about anything much. It's interesting, it's very satisfying to think after all these years of being part of the community, to end up with something like this. And it came out of the blue."

It came out of the blue after Chief Minister Andrew Barr neutralised a Liberal politician in a key seat for the Liberals, giving Brendan Smyth a job as Commissioner for International Engagement two weeks ago and creating a vacancy in the Tuggeranong seat.

Five other candidates from the 2012 election entered the countback – Labor's Rebecca Cody and Karl Maftoum, the Greens' Ben Murphy, Bullet Train for Canberra's Mark Erwood and independent Michael Lindfield.

The countback was for only the 10,594 votes that elected Brendan Smyth. The majority of his preferences went to Mr Jeffery, who ended up with 8566 of the votes. Second was Bullet Train's Mr Erwood, with 595, then the independent Mr Lindfield, with 298.

Mr Jeffery, who has a son and two granddaughters, was born in Queanbeyan but has lived most of his life in Tharwa where his parents ran the general store since 1926. Mr Jeffery now runs the store, and has been a cattle and wheat farmer, including the land that is now the Mulligans Flat nature reserve.

"I believe experience in the real world is very, very valuable to politicians and bureaucrats as well," he said. "I've learned a lot in my 80 years and there's no doubt in the world about that. I've had some hard kicks in the guts, but you learn."

Liberal leader Jeremy Hanson welcomed Mr Jeffery's election, saying, "It's very humbling and it's very heartwarming and it just shows the things that are right with democracy."

Mr Jeffery would not be made responsible for any portfolios, nor required to sit on committees.