The language of community is increasingly ambiguous yet the possibilities of cooperation in neighbourhood communities are central in many contemporary poverty reduction strategies targeting place-based disadvantage. Promoting neighbourhood community to redress socioeconomic disadvantage is emphasised at the same time that socioeconomic inequalities are acquiring marked spatial dimensions. In Australia, the implications of this for experiences of neighbourhood community have received limited attention. We present comparative analyses of perceptions of community in low-income and mixed neighbourhoods, and draw on related empirical and theoretical work to explore diversifying experiences of geographic community, and consider the implications for poverty reduction strategies targeting low-income neighbourhoods.