Australians are living closer together but feeling further apart.
asserted
Australians → live → ?
At least, that's the paradoxical picture that emerges if recent research on loneliness is set against the backdrop of the nation's current housing policy.
asserted
research → emerge → policy
More than half of all Australians are battling "some form of social disconnection", community cohesion initiative Ending Loneliness Together has reported.
asserted
initiative → battle → Loneliness
At the same time, the nation's housing affordability crisis has seen "high-density" become a key focus in planning circles — and in the corridors of power.
asserted
density → see → power
In Queensland, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has encouraged developers to "build, baby, build", while SA leader Peter Malinauskas, in 2023, notoriously urged his fellow citizens to stop thinking of "sprawl" as a "dirty word".
asserted
Malinauskas → encourage → word
Vernacular aside, both statements reflect a fundamental policy priority.
asserted
statements → reflect → priority
The federal government's 2026 Homes for Australia report refers to the need to deliver dwellings "including higher-density housing".
asserted
report → refer → housing
The National Planning Reform Blueprint hammers home that message, demanding "medium- and high-density housing in well-located areas" close to jobs and transport corridors.
asserted
Blueprint → hammer → jobs
But as cities rise up, grow out and fill in, urban planners will find themselves facing a dilemma: how do you rack, pack and stack a population without eroding its sense of solidarity?
asserted
you → rise → solidarity
"If you put [people] in a 100-storey residential tower, or even a 30-storey residential tower, that's not going to make them more likely to reach out and connect with each other," eminent social researcher and psychologist Hugh Mackay said.
"It's going to be make them feel like they're crammed in."
asserted
they → put → other
Ending Loneliness Together CEO Michelle Lim takes a similar view.
"
asserted
Lim → take → view
We're living in a world that's increasingly lonely and socially isolated — that means that even if we're living in cities, we can still feel like we don't have people to talk to or to turn to," she said.
asserted
she → live → people
Such stark assessments conflict sharply with Australia's long-cherished self-image as a nation of neighbours.
asserted
assessments → conflict → neighbours
The idea permeates popular culture.
asserted
idea → permeate → culture
"That's when good neighbours become good friends" is the concluding lyric of the theme song of one of the country's longest-running soaps, Neighbours.
asserted
neighbours → become → soaps
The ABC's Upper Middle Bogan depicts families who occupy different ends of the social spectrum, but who nevertheless embody the Australian Dream, by residing in detached homes on their own blocks.
asserted
who → depict → blocks
While it is today fashionable to declaim the death of that suburban idyll, cracks in the facade were already apparent 50 years ago.
asserted
cracks → declaim → facade
As early as 1975, journalist David Marr was imagining a time when Australians would stop dreaming.
asserted
Australians → imagine → time
"If things get too bad, the people on the edge of town will drop the Australian Dream and start living in flats," he cautioned in The Bulletin magazine.
asserted
he → get → magazine
The "edge of town" is an idea that has come under increasing strain.
asserted
that → come → strain
As urban growth boundaries are stretched, any insistence on restricting development in the interest of amenity is starting to seem almost quaint — a fact that long-time residents of Mount Barker have learned the hard way.
asserted
residents → stretch → Barker
Two decades are all it has taken to turn what was once an Adelaide Hills country town into a satellite suburb.
asserted
what → take → suburb
Such was the speed of the transformation that the very words "Mount Barker" became synonymous with planning woes.
asserted
words → become → woes
In 2011, the then-planning minister conceded the government should not have approved the rezoning of land before an infrastructure plan for the area had been devised.
asserted
plan → plan → area
"There will be no more Mount Barkers on my watch," John Rau pledged.
asserted
Rau → pledge → watch
It was in that climate that resident Graeme Parsons decided to subdivide — but for reasons at odds with the housing boom on his doorstep.
asserted
Parsons → decide → doorstep
"I was out protesting against the government at the time and the decisions they made for Mount Barker," he said.
asserted
he → protest → Barker
"We had a number of developers knocking on our door wanting to purchase the land, and we probably could have done very well out of that."
uncertain
we → have → that
Instead, Mr Parsons embarked on "Miller's Corner" — an enclave in the heart of Mount Barker that currently consists of 10 homes and was inspired by the "co-housing" movement that emerged in Denmark in the 1960s.
asserted
that → embark → 1960s
"We really wanted to find a place where we could actually be able to grow old, but also a place that was surrounded by neighbours who cared," he said.
uncertain
he → want → neighbours
"What we had here was virtually everything we needed — we're 200 metres from a supermarket, I can cycle down to my local GP or dentist — so why move?"
asserted
I → need → GP
The aim of Miller's Corner, where three more homes are planned, is to ensure everyone has their own private space, but not in a way that encourages confinement.
asserted
that → plan → confinement
"We actually designed the subdivision based on 'no cars', so everyone has to park at the front," he said.
asserted
he → design → front
"Walking to your homes, you'll have incidental meetings with other people, and those incidental meetings might end up [with a] 15-minute chat and 'let's catch up for coffee next week'.
uncertain
's → walk → coffee
"The relationships between us weave right through virtually everyone living here."
asserted
relationships → weave → everyone
Unlocking that kind of connection is something upon which demographers place a premium.
asserted
demographers → unlock → premium
"The typical eco-housing, where people are living more co-operatively in little clusters of housing, perhaps even including some common areas where they might eat together or have a recreation room — that sort of concept, I think, has a great deal going for it," Professor Mackay said.
uncertain
Mackay → live → it
When Mr Parsons first put his mind to Miller's Corner, his considerations included cost and sustainability, but the overriding one was community.
asserted
one → put → cost
The word implies something that is more than the sum of its parts; something that is more than homes alone.
asserted
that → imply → homes
"It's critical that little parks and plazas and piazzas and coffee shops and little retail precincts and so on are scattered through these areas — not just the regional shopping mall that you have to drive to," Professor Mackay said.
asserted
Mackay → scatter → that
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
