Australia is amazing! But what's up with the hostel culture?

I'm wondering if anyone else who has/is travelling Australia found the hostels to be a little antisocial in the big cities?

For context, I've had an amazing once in a lifetime trip exploring Australia for the past 3 weeks. Highlights include hiking the You Yangs, exploring the Bellarine peninsula and of course driving the Great Ocean Road...

But the difference between the hostel culture in these areas vs in the city of Melbourne itself is insane!

It seems strangely antisocial in the city hostels - as in, you can hear a pin drop in the kitchen levels of antisocial, people not making eye contact with you in the hallway, nobody hanging out in the common areas, and so on...

Wondering if anybody else experienced this as Australia has quite a party reputation and I'm very surprised!

tl;dr does anybody else think the hostels in Australian cities are antisocial?