Matt Purnell has come to recognise loneliness with a multitude of faces.
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For the past five years, he has been the pastor of Saint Andrew's Presbyterian parish in Wagga.
Primarily attended by an ageing demographic, Mr Purnell has seen the weeks and months permeate isolation through the community.
"In our church, there are people who used to come along regularly, but [are now] infirm or just physically unable to make it now," said Mr Purnell.
"It's definitely an issue, but there's not really an easy solution to it."
As the city's population ages and its younger generations increasingly move away, loneliness has become the companion of the suburbs.
That is according to findings released by Relationships Australia, which found loneliness to be a bigger killer than smoking or obesity.
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The annual day was founded in 2003 after the body of Elsie Brown was found in her central Victorian apartment.
She had been there for more than 23 months before neighbours made the gruesome discovery.
Almost a year ago, history repeated but this time much closer to home, when in April 2018 the body of John Ash was found by a real estate inside his Ashmont home.
Despite his active social life and involvement in many local clubs, his absence had gone unnoticed for more than a month.
It is a situation Mr Purnell is hopeful will never be re-created.
"It's very sad, for a lot of people they are just not [geographically] close to their families, which makes it difficult," Mr Purnell said.
"One thing that can help is if biological families let people like me know that their family member is often alone because it's certainly no-one's intention but people do get left behind."
On the other side of the city, stands another man who has confronted the issue head-on.
For 10 years, Scott Goode has served as the rector of South Wagga Anglican, but before that he worked for up to 15 years in the aged care sector.
He believes loneliness can birth community collegiality.
"I think I see the other side of it, the blessing of loneliness actually," he said.
"It's the goodness of how communities come together."
The findings of this year's Relationships Australia survey indicated that isolation not only an experience of the aged.
With single-parents, in particular, single-fathers, the group of greatest growth in loneliness, Mr Goode believes it has more to do with circumstance.
"When people's health deteriorates, their spouse can go from being a husband or a wife to be a carer, and that change of role can cause isolation," he said.
For others, Mr Goode said, the isolation stems from a life lived in a vacuum of contemporaries.
"We have an ageing population, many people are living for longer and often with a chronic illness," he said.
"It can be an isolating thing to outlive your friends."
From week-to-week, Mr Goode's parish boasts up to 300 patrons, with what he describes as a thriving social community outside the confines of the church building.
Mr Goode and the church elders make an effort to visit the homes of those who are permanently unable to reconvene attendance.
Right now, there are between five and 10 families they meet within this way every month or so.
But even still, there are those who go unnoticed.
"There are still the ones you don't see, you don't hear from," he said.
"Of course, people do fall through the cracks."