Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has fended off high-profile challengers to retain his Melbourne seat of Kooyong, with Liberal victory also in sight for key Victorian seats including Higgins.
Mr Frydenberg had been up against from human rights lawyer and Greens candidate Julian Burnside as well as Liberal-turned-independent Oliver Yates.
"ScoMo deserves so much credit for tonight's result," Mr Frydenberg said of returned Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday night.
"He has been tireless, crisscrossing the country, and selling our message to the Australian people."
Despite a widely-predicted federal loss, Mr Morrison claimed victory after voters in Queensland, NSW and Tasmania rallied behind the Liberal-National coalition.
Back in another blue-ribbon Melbourne seat, Liberal candidate Katie Allen was not ready to claim victory but said the result looked promising.
With nearly 70 per cent of the vote counted, Ms Allen led Labor candidate Fiona Mcleod 54-46 on a projected two-party preferred basis.
But the Liberals also experienced a six per cent swing against them in the blue-ribbon seat.
It's been home to prime ministers Harold Holt and John Gordon as well as former treasurer Peter Costello, who passed the baton to Kelly O'Dwyer in 2009.
She announced her retirement from politics earlier this year.
Elsewhere in Victoria, Health Minister Greg Hunt appears to have fended off a challenge from Liberal-turned-independent Julia Banks in the Mornington Peninsula seat of Flinders, southeast of Melbourne.
Mr Hunt said he was "very positive" but wasn't claiming victory yet because of the high number pre-poll voting.
The eastern suburbs seat of Chisholm remained too close to call early on Sunday morning, showing Liberal's Gladys Liu with a slight edge on Labor's Jennifer Yang.
Helen Haines appears to have kept Indi in independent hands.
On Saturday, a formal complaint was lodged after how-to-vote posters in Mandarin appeared - printed in the same colour and font as the Australian Electoral Commission - instructing voters to put the Liberal party first.
But the commission said no rules had been broken.
In Deakin, posters of Labor candidate Shireen Morris were defaced to show her wearing a niqab.
"Using Islamophobia to try to secure votes... disgraceful," she said.
Liberal MP Michael Sukkar was leading Labor 54-46 on a projected two-party basis in the seat early on Sunday morning.
Australian Associated Press
