If you are sick, need a tradesperson, want good police protection and like sports and entertainment, Summer Bay may be the place for you, despite its high mortality rate!
Introduction
The popular series Home and Away began in 1988, Set in the fictional coastal town of Summer Bay began with the original premise of Tom and Pippa Fletcher moving to Summer Bay with their foster children, aiming to provide a stable home for troubled youth It is Australia’s 8th longest running television series (38 years) although well behind Four Corners (64 years) and Playschool (58 years)
Since them, the show has evolved into a classic soap opera with the plots revolving around a relatively large number of characters and their interpersonal interactions often impacted by external events or the arrival of new characters. Alf Stewart (played by Ray Meagher) is the one constant member of the cast, starting from the initial pilot in 1988.
A skewed labour market
Despite being shown as a typical coastal town in Easten Australia, the distribution of the Summer Bay workforce differs markedly from the Australian average. For example,
- Medical roles are overrepresented in Home and Away (20% compared with 15.3% nationally).
- Trades & manual work (mechanics, surfboard shapers) are far more prominent in the show than in the national average (construction is 9.5% nationally).
- Law enforcement is overrepresented (15% vs 6.4% for Public Administration & Safety).
- Entertainment & Sports (30%) are hugely overrepresented compared to the Australian average (3%) .
- Professional services (9% nationally) are almost absent in the show.
- Retail & hospitality are similar in proportion to national averages
These anomalies are no doubt to fit in with the makeup of the cast, but would it not have been more realistic to cut down on the surfboard manufacturers and include a few professionals such as accountants or lawyers (or economists)? Who for example is doing the books for the restaurants, surf club and gymnasium? Do we really trust Marilyn or Leah to balance the books of the Diner, Mackenzie to do her own BAS statements, Justin to do the tax return for Summer Bay auto or Remi to do the legal work required to protect the IP of his artists.? And who will sign the committal papers for Alf when the time finally comes?
Reflecting the labour market more accurately could bring some story line benefits. For example, a young account joins the cast and discovers massive fraud at the dinner. He is mysteriouslykilled from a bomb planted on his surfboard and the whole casts are suspects. Now if that would not boost ratings, I do not know what would!
Deaths in Home and Away: A Grim Tradition
Despite its over representation in medical and health care, for a sleepy seaside town, Summer Bay has seen an extraordinary number of tragedies. The show has featured over two hundred character deaths since 1988. While most off these deaths have been among minor characters (about 75%), death and injury are often used for dramatic effect or to facilitate changes in the cast
The town has endured bushfires, floods, landslides, gas explosions, stalkers, and shark attacks, often multiple times. Deaths have occurred from
- Car accidents
- Natural disasters (bushfires, floods, landslides)
- Medical emergencies (aneurysms, cancer)
- Violent incidents (shootings, stabbings)
- Suicides and drownings
- Shark attacks
While most of these things (apart from shark attacks) occur in most places in Australia, they do seem to happen with greater propensity in Summer Bay, despite its over representation in police, health services and water safety
What is the mortality rate in Summer Bay compared to the Australian Average?
The average mortality rate for the Australian population in 2024/25 is about 6.83 per 100.000 persons. It is more difficult to estimate the mortality rate for Summer Bay. We know 200 persons have died in the show, but would need to estimate the fictional population If we assume average deaths between 7 to 10 per year and a population of 1000 persons, this implies ( at the higher end) a mortality rate 46% higher than the national average, and that is not accounting for the numerous non-fatal traumatic events
If Summer Bay were real and had a population of 1,000, and experienced ten deaths per year, its death rate would be ten per 1,000—about 46% higher than the national average. And that’s not even accounting for the sheer number of traumatic events per capita.
Entertainment of Realism?
Home and away is a long running (and successful) television series with a loyal but declining audience. It departs from realism in terms of the structure of its fictional workforce through its over representation of Entertainment and Sports, Small scale manufacturing Health Services, Police services. It ignores Professional and Technical services which ( in 2025) make up around 10% of the Australian workforce. Somewhat contradictory, despite its emphasis on Health and Police services, its mortality rate is remarkably high. But is it possible in producing a television series, is it possible to have both realism and entertainment? It is not only possible, but also often what makes a TV series truly compelling. The best shows strike a balance between entertainment and realism, blending emotional truth with dramatic storytelling. The show is (and was) written by a number of different authors, leading to inconsistencies in the story line. As well, as pointed out above, Home, and Away struggles in some areas to achieve realism in comparison with the Australin average. However, over the years it has tackled many social issues (injecting some realism) and intermingled this with romance, tragedy, and drama, not brilliantly, but it has lasted 38 years.! .
A fitting conclusion
Home and away is due to finish in 2026. Before that I am hoping the producers will find a way to give the character of Alf a sufficiently grizzly send-off. It hardly seems fair that this old whinger has survived for 38 years while others around him have been dying like flies. It nearly happened some years ago when Alf and Don (the deceased Headmaster and elderly husband of Marilyn) were shipwrecked, and sharks were closing in. Thanks to the over-represented police and safety services in Summer Bay they were rescued. Don left the series later, but Alf survived to torment viewers for many more years.
