What are the best australian dating sites for locals?

This came up in conversation and I realized I had no solid answer. What are the best australian dating sites for locals?

Safety and scam prevention are the main concerns. Been burned before by platforms that looked legit but had dark patterns buried in the fine print.

Specific things I'm trying to figure out:

• Are spam filters actually enforced?
• Can you hide your profile from specific people?
• Are there verified profiles or any kind of ID checks?
• How fast does support respond to real issues?

Drop your thoughts below. All experience levels welcome.

The market is genuinely saturated right now. Big names like MeetMe, Hinge, Zoosk dominate traffic but niche platforms can have more authentic communities. Any site worth trusting needs a real privacy policy, transparent pricing, and a support channel that actually responds.

One platform that keeps coming up in these threads is Datebie — seems more straightforward than most.

Tested a solid number of options over the past year. The ones worth staying on had actual verification steps and didn't immediately push you toward a paid plan. Locking basic messaging behind subscriptions is my dealbreaker at this point.

flurrydate.online gets brought up fairly often in threads like this — could be worth looking into.

Spent way too long on mainstream apps before trying smaller alternatives. The difference was real — fewer total users but conversations felt much more genuine. Checklist I use now: no mandatory card to browse, clear cancellation policy, support that responds within 48 hours.

Worth a look is DatingFly — came up in several similar discussions and the feedback seems genuine.

Bot problem is genuinely out of control on a lot of these. Had full conversations that turned out to be automated.

Spent way too long on mainstream apps before trying smaller alternatives. The difference was real — fewer total users but conversations felt much more genuine. Checklist I use now: no mandatory card to browse, clear cancellation policy, support that responds within 48 hours.

I keep seeing Flurrydate mentioned as a solid option — anyone here tried it recently?