As the most populous and most affected Australian jurisdictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, New South Wales and Victoria are examined here in order to understand young Australian’s perspectives of the impact of COVID-19 and to signal the challenges that they continue to face as a result: What are their main concerns? What are the challenges that most impact their lives? How might young people be supported?

Melbourne experienced 161 days of lockdown over two separate periods in 2020, and a total of 109 days over four lockdown periods in 2021, making it the world’s most locked-down city. Although not as severe, areas of regional Victoria also experienced varying degrees of lockdowns and social restrictions.

New South Wales reacted similarly in the early days of the pandemic with an initial lockdown from 31 March to 15 May 2020. An outbreak in the northern beaches area resulted in a shorter targeted lockdown over the Christmas and New Year period. The longest single lockdown was 107 days in 2021 after the arrival of the Delta variant in Sydney. This made NSW the second most locked-down jurisdiction in Australia.

This report draws on data collected for the annual Australian Youth Barometer published in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Researchers from the Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice conducted surveys and semi-structured interviews with young people aged 18–24 from all states in Australia each year. In this report we have extracted the data from New South Wales and Victoria to illustrate the perspectives of young people in the years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.