Australia and the Hunter have resoundingly rejected recognising First Nations people in the constitution with an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The national Yes vote in Saturday's referendum was sitting at about 42 per cent with just over a quarter of the ballots counted.
The No campaign was heading for victory in all six states.
In the Hunter, Newcastle was the only federal electorate to record a Yes majority vote.
The Yes campaign won 54 per cent of the count in Labor MP Sharon Claydon's seat.
The Hunter results reflected the Yes campaign's strong results in inner-city areas across the nation and poor showing in outer suburban, regional and rural areas.
The Yes vote was just 29 per cent in the seats of Hunter and Paterson and 39 per cent in Shortland.
The results are in stark contrast to Labor's success in the region in last year's federal election, when the party won 54 per cent of the vote in Hunter, 53 per cent in Paterson, 56 per cent in Shortland and 68 per cent in Newcastle.
Newcastle-based Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council chief executive Kumarah Kelly said the referendum result had left her "disappointed" and "deflated".
"It felt good out there in the community today, but it wasn't the result we were looking for," she said.
"I know there's going to be a lot of disappointment in a lot of Aboriginal homes tonight.
"I'm sure tomorrow I'll wake up feeling rejuvenated and ready to go again and find the next answers and what we need to do to keep moving forwards as a country and what we need to do for our community in whatever way we can.
"For tonight, it's just utter deflation."
Ms Kelly said the referendum had produced "a hell of a lot of racism, particularly on social media".
"I think a lot of it was because of the No campaign's complete fear-mongering.
"It was a misunderstanding or misinformation being fed, a fear of things that just weren't real.
"The No campaign was just that: it was a campaign and it was designed to win.
"I think that a lot of people let that fear and that ignorance win out."
Newcastle and Hunter for No campaign manager Blake Keating, a Liberal party member, said he was "elated" by the referendum results in the Hunter and across the nation.
"We're obviously very happy that the people in the Hunter have agreed with us," he said while celebrating at a pub in Shortland.
"The seat of Newcastle's still sort of in play, but it's quite obvious that the seats of Shortland, Hunter and Paterson are very strongly voting no.
"And obviously the national result is something our supporters are very happy about.
"We think our campaign's gotten across to the community and the community's clearly agreed with us."
Mr Keating said the way forward for Aboriginal reconciliation was to follow Liberal leader Peter Dutton's suggestion of a referendum on recognising Indigenous people in the preamble to the constitution.
"I think that would get the overwhelming support of the community, and when it comes to closing the gap and all of these other things that are important to everyone, every fair-minded Australian wants to close the gap.
"For us, that means having the national conversation we should have been having from the very beginning about the challenges those communities face and what's the most effective way for state and territory governments to approach it.
"I think the community, after this process, will expect the Labor party and other parties in the Parliament to actually put forward real agendas to achieve the things that everyone in the community says they want."
Ms Kelly said she was grateful the Newcastle electorate had voted in favour of the Voice.
"I expected a Yes vote here in Newcastle.
"I see Newcastle being a safe place for Aboriginal people, particularly at our local government level.
"I know the numbers were really low in the Hunter, but I'm proud to be a Novocastrian and proud that Newcastle showed up the way that it did."
