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Everybody needs good neighbours, according to the long-running Australian soap opera – or at least its jingle. Yet research shows plenty of us don’t even know who lives next door.

A 2018 Stats NZ survey found 30 per cent of people gave their connection with neighbours a rating of four or less, where 10 indicated a strong sense of connection, while according to the Australia Talks National Survey 2021, about one in three Australians do not know their neighbours by name.

Even worse, research in both countries has shown that around 45 per cent of people have a problem with their neighbours.

Social researcher Hugh Mackay says he’s hopeful the pandemic will act as a circuit breaker: “It has already reminded us that we have neighbours and some of them need us … or if we didn’t know them before now we do [and] you’re giving them a bag of lemons or something.

“There’s thousands of heart-warming stories emerging from local neighbourhoods of people rediscovering that local, personal connection.”