LOVE THY NEIGHBOURS
Each day, more than 120 million viewers worldwide eagerly follow the lives of residents in Ramsay Street. But have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a 'Neighbour'?
Undoubtedly the best way to experience a little Neighbours magic is to visit Ramsay Street – real name: Pin Oak Court in Vermont South – and get snapped outside the house of Lou Carpenter (Tom Oliver). If you time it right, a visit to this oh-so-hallowed-turf is also the best way to catch the cast and crew filming.
Mythical Ramsay Street, Erinsborough, is some 30 minutes away from the CBD in Melbourne's leafy suburbs, close to the studios where Neighbours is filmed. If you don’t have a car, take a tour run by Melbourne's Backpacker King, enjoying a free lunch and complimentary plonk while you’re there, as well as heaps of gossip. Alternatively, most hostels have tours to the street.
As well, you can test the mettle of current recruits at the Neighbours trivia night, held every Monday evening at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub in St Kilda. Go head-to-head with Doctor Karl (Alan Fletcher) or Toadie (Ryan Maloney), or ask what neighbour they fancy the most. For further schmoozing opportunities, check out Melbourne’s cooler-than-thou bars and clubs, where you'll often find some of the Neighbours hotties strutting their stuff.
Australia’s longest-running soap, Neighbours began in 1985. Viewing old episodes is essential for reliving the first tentative career steps of many of today's celluloid stars, not to mention seeing some of the finest mullets in television history (RIP the Toadfish). Where were you when Guy Pearce and Jason Donovan were young and refreshingly naïve? When doe-eyed Natalie Imbruglia was doe-eyed Beth? When the dogs Bouncer and Rosie tied the knot? And what were you wearing when sex-goddess Kylie stumbled into Ramsay Street as fluffy-headed mechanic Charlene?
