Of paramount importance to any nation is the quality of life of its citizens. Quality of life has been defined in a multitude of ways, with little agreement on elements that should be measured. Key domains such as health, education and income support, are argued by some researchers as only base planks, with other domains such as social capital, environmental sustainability, and family functioning, as well as subjective measures of general happiness, satisfaction with spheres of life and personal evaluations of society, as additional areas which should be included and measured. This article reports on a two day workshop, organised by Richard Eckersley, Visiting Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, and hosted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in which the work of key researchers working in the field was presented and contradictions in quality of life research were explored.