Star of Australia's 'first ever reality TV show', said to be ‘Neighbours gone mad’, has died

The star of ‘Australia’s first reality TV show’ has died.

Noeline Donaher, best known for her role in real-life soap opera Sylvania Waters, is thought to have died last year - but her death has only just become known.

Donaher filmed the reality show in 1992, but after it came to an end she stepped away from the spotlight. She is believed to have died in May 2023, according to an announcement made by her partner Laurie's son Mick on a Facebook group at the time.

He wrote: 'Dad has asked me to share with you all. . . the sad news that Noeline Donaher, his partner 40 years, recently passed away.” He added that she had made lots of friends over the years and had many memorable moments and laughs.

Sylvania Waters followed the life of Noeline, partner Laurie Donaher and their family, who lived in the wealthy Sydney suburb of the same name.

The series also featured her teenage son Michael, and eldest son Paul, who lived nearby with pregnant girlfriend Dione, as well as Laurie's son Mick, daughter-in-law Yvette and their two young daughters.

The show was apparently created when ABC put out a call for a “lively family” in 1992. The Donaher family signed up, and camera crews filmed their every move for a few months. The footage was eventually edited down in to 12 episodes which aired later the same year in Australia. The tagline to the soap was ‘could these be your neighbours?’. The series originally screened in Australia in July 1992, before being shown on the BBC in the UK in April 2023. The series raised controversy at the time it was aired, however.

The Sydney Morning Herald said that the series, which included 12 episodes, was pandering to 'every British preconception about Aussies'. One critic at the time claimed it was like 'Neighbours gone mad, Home and Away on drugs'. An X account made for the show in 2009, describes the show as “Australia's first reality show where Noeline learned to just be herself.”

A viewer on X explained the show by writing: “The year was 1992. Reality television didn’t exist. The ABC in conjunction with BBC produced a show that broke the rules for its time.”

Another pondered: “I wonder if Sylvania Waters did actually reflect a particular sub-section of Sutherland Shire culture but that when people got that look in the mirror, they really didn't like what they saw?” Donaher insisted she was happy with the show during talk show interviews, and in a book she wrote called The Sylvania Waters Diary. She even recorded a single called No Regrets to further demonstrate her happiness with the show.