On the trail in NSW: week one

FEDERAL CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN NSW:

WHERE THEY CAMPAIGNED

* MONDAY

Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop is the first to start in NSW, spruiking free-trade deals in the regional bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro.

* WEDNESDAY

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull takes to the marginal western Sydney of Lindsay to talk up his economic plan with local Liberal MP Fiona Scott.

* FRIDAY

Labor leader Bill Shorten makes his first foray into the NSW hustings, heading to the western Sydney seat of Reid to pitch education.

* FRIDAY

Both leaders face off in a televised forum of 100 swinging voters in the western Sydney seat of Macquarie.

* SATURDAY

Mr Turnbull attended a netball tournament in his own electorate of Wentworth, before heading to Reid for a streetwalk in Homebush.

WINNERS

An unpopular council merger in Barnaby Joyce's NSW electorate is shelved by the state's coalition government. The proposed amalgamation of Walcha and Tamworth councils was a hot issue in the deputy PM's battle for the electorate of New England.

LOSERS

While campaigning with the PM in Lindsay, Liberal MP Fiona Scott - who was famously lauded for her "sex appeal" by Tony Abbott during the 2013 campaign - refuses to say whether she voted for Malcolm Turnbull in last year's leadership coup. Mr Turnbull then cancels a planned walk-through in Penrith that afternoon, citing time constraints.

UNLIKELY ALLIES

Rupert Murdoch's Sydney newspaper the Daily Telegraph issues an extraordinary front-page "Save Our Albo" for left-wing Labor MP Anthony Albanese who's facing a bitter battle with Greens candidate Jim Casey for the inner-west Sydney seat of Grayndler.

BEST LINE

"If it's known you're going to do a street walk in Penrith, the last thing you want to do, `Mr Harbourside Mansion', is look like you don't know and you are not welcome." - Tony Abbott's former chief of staff Peta Credlin slams the PM for cancelling the Penrith street walk.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

While greeting passengers aboard a train headed for Emu Plains, Malcolm Turnbull meets a woman who has no idea who he is. The PM looks momentarily bemused before he tells the woman he's "doing a bit of conducting on the train".

THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL

Tony Windsor's dog barks up a storm on social media as a video of the pooch high-fiving the New England candidate is shared hundreds of times online from Monday.