Ms Salvetti also exercises every day, is not poor and lives in a house that is not particularly close to heavy industry, an airport or a train station. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, a long-term annual study of nearly 20,000 Australians, has teased out many revealing details about the things that we believe keep us happy and healthy. The household-based panel study began in 2001, funded by the Australian government and managed by the University of Melbourne. While some of the results follow common sense maxims – such as being a healthy weight and not smoking – others are more surprising. Australians who consume up to 42 alcoholic drinks per week (six drinks per day, on average) are still reporting high levels of short-term health and well-being, according to the survey.

"You are a seriously heavy drinker if you're drinking that much a night," said the report's author, Associate Professor Roger Wilkins. But before you rush to the nearest bottle shop, it is important to note that the survey does not take into account the long-term effects of drinking. Government drinking guidelines say two standard drinks a day is the limit if you want to reduce "your risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury over a lifetime". Professor Wilkins also speculated people in poor health are less likely to drink more, while healthy twentysomethings​ could still indulge. There is absolutely no evidence alcohol actually causes good health. This is one of the happiness factors that surprised Ms Salvetti, who thought she was being very generous with her eight standard drinks a week.

Another surprising factor is that work-life balance might not be as important as it appears. In fact, the more people work, the better their health is. Employees can work more than 51 hours in paid work and 81 hours of total work (that's more than 11 hours a day) without any detrimental effect on their wellbeing, according to the report. Other ingredients in the recipe of happiness: befriend your neighbours, avoid financial stress and have a high income – and live somewhere quiet. Sales workers and managers, like Ms Salvetti, have the best perceived job security, while labourers, machinery operators and drivers have the worst. "My job makes me pretty happy," Ms Salvetti said. "I'm happy to come to work every day. It's a really positive, happy environment."

If you're a man, living with a partner will increase your general health but children cancel out the benefits of being in a couple. Women do not see any obvious health benefits from being in a relationship, unless they also have children. The study also suggests retirees, especially men, are likely to have poor health compared with just about everyone else. "We are designed to work," Professor Wilkins said. "We need purpose." Happy people also tend to live outside major urban centres, such as Sydney and Melbourne. People who lived in towns smaller than 1000 people were most satisfied with life, followed by people that lived in bigger regional towns. The report concluded that "major cities are the least desirable place to live". And if you're a woman, there's one place you definitely need to go: Queensland. The report found women in the Sunshine State were more satisfied with life than everyone else.

Otherwise, little difference could be found between the relative happiness of residents of other states and territories. Professor Wilkins put that down to a fairly even distribution of economic success and wellbeing across the nation. Ms Savetti says she won't rule out one day packing up her backs and heading north to take her happiness to the next level. She also might have an extra drink or two this week, with a cheers to being happy.