Hundreds of Australian tourists and expats have queued outside Australia House in London to vote in the upcoming federal election with the major parties insisting UK ballots could be decisive.
Around 80 people turned up even before the doors of the high commission opened at 11am local time on the public holiday Monday.
Australia House is the largest polling station in the federal election, having attracted 16,000 voters in 2010.
Labor, the coalition and the Greens believe ballots cast in London over the next fortnight could be crucial in some inner-city seats.
That's a sentiment shared by George and Josie Milford from central Victoria.
In the UK on a sight-seeing tour, the elderly couple were among the very first to pre-poll vote on Monday.
"We're just keen to get it done," Mr Milford told AAP.
"What if it's a hung parliament again? One vote might make all the difference."
The Liberals had more volunteers handing out how-to-vote cards than Labor on Monday but the ALP was winning the signage war.
The Greens were represented by UK campaign co-ordinator Mat Hines.
He thinks UK ballots could be key particularly in Melbourne which is currently held by Adam Bandt.
"Some seats came down to a handful of votes last time so it could quite easily be that the votes cast here in London do determine some of those," Mr Hines told AAP.
Australian Liberals Abroad president Jason Groves is working on his sixth federal election campaign in London.
He said people travelled from across the UK to vote in person at Australia House.
"In certain inner-city seats there is a very large number of votes cast here and it's easily conceivable in some tight races that votes cast at Australia House could make the difference between winning and losing," Mr Groves told AAP.
Stephen Boardman from Sydney has been in London for almost two years working for an airline.
He's been following the campaign closely online and thinks the competing visions on offer are sadly "devoid of any excitement and true policy".
The expat said the only coverage of the election he'd seen in the UK media was the Jaymes Diaz gaffe and One Nation's Stephanie Banister referring to Islam as a country.
"That was hilarious," Mr Boardman said.
"But that's the only thing that gets press coverage here - which is a bit embarrassing."
Tony Abbott's misuse of "suppository" also got a lot of air-play.
It's not compulsory to vote while away from Australia and although 16,000 votes were cast in 2010 that's a small percentage of the 300,000 expats estimated to be living and working in the UK.
ALP Abroad president Paul Smith carries a large map showing the Australian electorates as he campaigns outside Australia House.
He wants to ensure voters collect the right ballot paper because, Labor argues, expats vote 2-1 in favour of the ALP over the coalition.
Pre-poll voting at Australia House runs until Friday September 6.
Each party has about 40 volunteers each rostered to cover the two-week voting period.
