Home and Away (H&A) is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip to Kangaroo Point, New South Wales, where he noticed locals were complaining about the construction of a foster home and against the idea of foster children from the city living in the area. The soap opera was initially going to be called Refuge, but the name was changed to the "friendlier" title of Home and Away once production began.

The show premiered in what Bateman classified as a ninety-minute telefeature (subsequently in re-runs and on VHS titled as Home and Away: The Movie, as opposed to a pilot. Since then, each subsequent episode has aired for a duration of twenty-two minutes. Home and Away has become the second longest-running drama series in Australian television, after Neighbours. In Australia, it is currently broadcast from Mondays to Thursdays at 7:00 pm.

Home and Away follows the lives and loves of the residents in Summer Bay, a fictional seaside town in New South Wales. The series initially focused on the Fletcher family – Tom (Roger Oakley) and Pippa (Vanessa Downing), and their five foster children, Frank Morgan (Alex Papps), Carly Morris (Sharyn Hodgson), Lynn Davenport (Helena Bozich), Steven Matheson (Adam Willits) and Sally Fletcher (Kate Ritchie) – who moved from the city into the Summer Bay House, where they assumed the new job of running the caravan park, and eventually took in a sixth foster child, Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson). Home and Away was not without controversy. During the first season alone, it featured several adult-themed storylines such as teen pregnancy, rape, drug and alcohol addiction, drug overdose and attempted suicide. The series has dealt with similar storylines over the years which have often exceeded its restricted time slot. Palm Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches district has been used as the location for Summer Bay since 1988. The exterior scenes are filmed mainly at Palm Beach, while the interior scenes are filmed at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern.

Home and Away has been sold to over 140 countries around the world, making it one of Australia's most successful media exports. In the UK, it and fellow Australian soap opera Neighbours are the most popular of the genre that are filmed internationally; Home and Away is broadcast on Channel 5, which also previously aired Neighbours until it was initially cancelled in 2022 after the network declined to renew its contract for the programme (it has since been revived by Amazon Freevee, in cooperation with domestic broadcaster Network 10). It is one of the highest-rating shows on RTÉ Television in Ireland (the same episode being shown twice per day: first in the early afternoon on RTÉ 1 and second in the early evening on RTÉ 2), and TVNZ 2 in New Zealand. In Australia, Home and Away is the most awarded program at the Logie Awards, with a total of 51 wins, including Most Popular Drama Program. Some cast members have won several other awards such as the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television, Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor, and Most Popular Actress. In 2015, Home and Away was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.

After the Seven Network cancelled their soap opera Neighbours on 12 July 1985 due to low ratings, rival Network 10 picked it up and turned it into a success. A couple of years later, Seven's head of drama, Alan Bateman, became desperate to get back into the soap market and began to work out how to launch another soap that was not a copy of Neighbours. While on a trip to Kangaroo Point, New South Wales with his family, Bateman began talking to locals who were "up in arms" over the construction of a foster home for children from the city. Seeing the degree of conflict the "influx of parentless children on a tight-knit community" was having, Bateman came away with the idea for a new serial. He explained "Nobody in the community wanted them to move in and I began to wonder how streetwise city kids would adapt to the new lifestyle. Suddenly I thought, there is my slice of life in a community." Bateman began outlining the storyline and set the serial in the fictional town of Summer Bay. While Seven Network executives were unconvinced by the idea, audience research was positive. The soap opera was initially called Refuge, but the name was changed to the "friendlier" title of Home and Away once production began.

Home and Away has since become the second-longest drama series in Australian television after Neighbours. In 2002, several former characters such as Frank Morgan (Alex Papps), Carly Morris (Sharyn Hodgson), Steven Matheson (Adam Willits), Blake Dean (Les Hill) and Sophie Simpson (Rebekah Elmaloglou) returned for a special storyline to mark the 150th anniversary of settlement in Summer Bay. The storyline featured a majority of the cast boarded onto a ferry boat for a night cruise; however, a massive storm ruined the celebrations, leading the boat to sink. In July 2005, Home and Away celebrated its 4000th episode, which saw many former cast members return for Alf Stewart's (Ray Meagher) surprise 60th birthday party. In March 2007, the commercial television industry's Annual Code Complaint Report revealed that Home and Away was the eighth most complained about show on Australian television, and the only drama series in the top ten complaint list. From 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006, there were 23 written complaints about the show as viewers thought it was inappropriate for it to be shown in its 7:00 pm timeslot.

Home and Away celebrated its 21st year in production in Sydney on 23 July 2009. The mayor of Sydney's Pittwater Council presented cast members with the key to Palm Beach, the exteriors setting filming location for the show. At the end of 2011, Cameron Welsh left his role as the series producer. Welsh previously played the character Mitch McColl from 1999 until 2001 and then became the series producer for Home and Away in 2007. Former All Saints producer Lucy Addario took over as series producer in January 2012. In August 2012, Home and Away's official Australian Facebook page reached one million likes, becoming the first Australian television show to reach this milestone. The Facebook page was established in November 2009 and is followed by fans mostly in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom. In 2013, Home and Away celebrated its 25th anniversary and former cast member Kate Ritchie (Sally Fletcher) returned for a special storyline to coincide with the celebrations. For the first time in the show's history, Home and Away aired a two-hander, Episode 6361, featuring the characters Ricky Sharpe (Bonnie Sveen) and Darryl "Brax" Braxton (Steve Peacocke), on 15 February 2016.

Home and Away is set in Summer Bay, a fictional seaside town in New South Wales. Locations within the town include the beach, a high school, diner, bait shop, garage and a surf club, which includes a gym, small kiosk and an upstairs restaurant. Characters in the show live at surrounding neighbouring areas such as the Summer Bay House, Summer Bay Caravan Park, Beach House, The Farmhouse, Pier flat, and Saxon Avenue. Other fictional towns mentioned and sometimes seen in Home and Away are Mangrove River and Yabbie Creek.