Since COVID-19 restrictions eased many community groups expected residents to be wary about socialising but for one group its memberships have skyrocketed since reopening.
After months of self-isolation, hundreds of seniors have joined the Mandurah Seniors Centre in an effort to socialise again.
According to City of Mandurah staff, the online engagement with seniors during COVID-19 connected people to the community that had never been reached before.
"The response the City did right across the organisation with seniors during COVID-19 really reached out and connected people who we hadn't connected with before," a spokesperson said.
"We've had 380 new members since we reopened, which was only eight or nine weeks ago - we hit 2040 members last week."
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The Mandurah Seniors Centre facebook group has also grown during COVID-19 with the page now having over 900 members.
Vee Storm, who helps with publicity at the Seniors Centre, said she had also seen a spike in the general public coming to events.
"A lot of the seniors were doing not much at all for months and months so now they've all decided to come and join the centre," she said.
"I've seen a lot of people coming in from the general public - people from the Greendale Centre came all the way from Armadale for the first concert back."
Attending the first live concert since COVID-19 restrictions began, Mandurah mayor Rhys Williams said it was great to see seniors reengaging with the community again.
"I was talking to a lot of the members about what it meant to be back and they talked a lot about the loneliness and the isolation from the pandemic and being shut in at home," he said.
"The numbers have skyrocketed over there - there's people coming out of the woodwork from all parts of the community to join up.
"It is remarkable to see them back reengaging with the community and the concert really meant something to them."
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To find out about upcoming events and activities at the Mandurah Seniors Centre visit the website.
