Fearing she would be confined to her house for the next six months, she went in search of someone to cosy up to during the pandemic. "There are lots of memes going around in the USA about locking it down before lockdown, and I knew we would be heading that way here soon," she said. "If they do a total lockdown, we won't know how long it will last, I could do two weeks on my own but not six months. "Last weekend I went on three different dates with three different people, I had to squeeze them in before lockdown." Meg said she found a man who had also been looking for a "lockdown buddy" and they planned to move in together in the next couple of days.

"I only just moved down here and I don't have any friends. I had one night out on the Gold Coast before the restrictions started getting serious, but now I can't really meet anyone. "I don't want to be by myself." Brisbane resident Georgia, who did not wish to give her last name, said she was still using dating apps Bumble and Hinge. The 25-year-old said she had stopped meeting people face-to-face as she did not want to put her parents at greater risk of contracting the coronavirus. "I work in health so I am conscious I should not really be meeting with people," she said.

"I am still trying to message people but I am a bit lazy about it. Usually the messaging builds up to meeting face-to-face but now that is up in the air. "I don't want to invest all this time and be messaging for months then meet them and it doesn't work out." Georgia has been single for about a year and only just decided to put herself back out there again. "It is all a bit weird. I had a guy ask me to do a Skype date yesterday and I am awkward at the best of times. "I am very much a face-to-face kind of person, so the thought of dating over the phone is anxiety-producing."