The census was a kind of therapy to lift us out of our lockdown gloom, according to one of the country's most prominent sociologists.
"There is a thirst for wanting to be heard," demographer Dr Liz Allen of the Australian National University said.
She thought that the collective act of filling in the forms and revealing a bit about ourselves helped answer that need in a time when we are isolated and locked down.
She noted that in the Census of 2016, there were concerns voiced about privacy and intrusion, but this time those fears weren't apparent. There were no calls, for example, to deface the forms (as there were five years earlier).
Dr Allen surmises that these concerns had not surfaced because people welcomed the census as a relief.
It wasn't the only factor, she said.
The advertising to convince people to participate was very strong, what Dr Allen called "really top level, good stuff, informing people of the importance of the census, getting the community on board".
But the census did arrive at an anxious time. "Every day, we're waiting on the latest figures concerning Covid infections, and so on, the hotspots."
"It's geared us toward requiring this constant flow of evidence. And so I think the census has benefited from that this time round."
"I wonder how much of what we're seeing around census this time round is a feeling, maybe, of disempowerment or alienation and wanting government to notice our existence."
She said that therapy was not what the census was for. "The census is largely to understand the demography of us, from age income, inequality, and how that varies across geography."
But that didn't mean the "thirst to be heard" wasn't there.
"I wonder how we can address that. It's a normal human need to be seen. There are so many elements of me, I want to be seen, I want to have the ability to turn on the TV and watch people that look or sound like me presenting news or in drama.
"I want a poor kid to be reflected in news presenters. I still feel the disempowerment of not being included in 1996 census because I was homeless at the time."
"There are all of these parts of ourselves as a nation not actually being recognised or celebrated. The Census has some role there to help us understand us. But it can't address the deep yearning to belong."
