Mr Brakell, 44, moved to a 45-acre property at Spring Terrace from Sydney almost four years ago with his wife Karen and daughter Abigail, now 5, with his second daughter Madeline, 3, born at Orange Health Service.

“Karen and I believed that Sydney didn’t hold the values we were aspiring to and we had Abigail, who was two at the time, so we started to think about what sort of future did we want for Abigail’s schooling and access to medical services and other families with young children and we recognised the value of a country upbringing,” he said.

Mr Brakell, a barrister, ran his own business in Orange and joined The Nationals in March 2013, serving as the Orange branch chairman for the past three years.

He has also been involved in the Spring Terrace Water Group and represented the Orange Ratepayers Association to challenge councillor Kevin Duffy’s eligibility to run for Orange City Council.

“I was already thinking about moving into politics and politics at the state and federal level tends to be a natural progression from the bar,” he said.

If successful at preselection and the byelection, Mr Brakell said his main priorities were securing adequate resources for regional schools and health services, economic diversification and value adding to orchard, wool and meat businesses, and improving freight efficiency through the inland rail project.