Home and Away (often abbreviated as H & A) is an Australian television soap opera. January 17, 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip to Kangaroo Point, New South Wales, where he noticed the locals were complaining about the construction of a foster home and against the idea of foster children from the city. The soap opera was originally to be called Refuge, but the name was changed to the "friendlier" title of Home and Away once production began. The show premiered with a ninety-minute pilot episode (subsequently in re-runs known as Home and Away: The Movie).