It is widely held that it is important to have good relations with neighbours, particularly in combating isolation and enjoying informal social supports, but that it is advisable not to be 'too close to your neighbours'. It is also widely held that outer suburban life is one of isolation, with families living in their homes on quarter acre blocks, cut off not only from their family and friends, but also from their neighbours around them. In contrast, according to this view, neighbourliness is pervasive in the older, middle suburbs and an inherent part of inner suburban and city living. The stereotype of the uniformly isolated nuclear family in the uniformly lonely suburban setting fits badly in Green Views. In the Institute's Australian Living Standards study, questions were asked about 'neighbourliness'.
Responses refer to a sense of neighbourliness rather than to actual behaviour.
Around 420 families were interviewed in both Berwick and inner Melbourne, and 520 in Box Hill. There are significant differences between the areas, but the findings run counter to the popular myth. Neighbourliness was very high in Berwick and in Box Hill, but significantly lower in inner Melbourne. Eighty per cent of Box Hill and Berwick families, compared with 69 per cent of inner Melbourne families, reported that they knew a neighbour well enough to ask for help in a crisis, that is, 'have a child minded in an emergency', but less than half in Box Hill and Berwick, and only a quarter in inner Melbourne, said that they knew a neighbour well enough to ask them to help on a longer- term basis, that is, 'have a child minded regularly'. Around three-quarters of Box Hill and Berwick families, and 69 per cent of inner Melbourne families, knew a neighbour well enough to 'borrow something', although this proportion dropped when the 'something' involved money.