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Australia
Australian Boomers migrate to the coasts

Mis en ligne le 14/03/2007

Many boomers leave the cities to settle on the coasts throughout the country. According to ABS population data, the median New South Wales age is 37 years, whereas on the coasts it is around 45 years. The phenomenon could be compared with Florida, where it is reversing after years of grey migration.

The lure of the coast for the cartilage-challenged was confirmed by ABS population data this week. But reports from the world's first sea-change destination hint that grey surfers aren't going to be shark bait for long. When you scan the age profiles of the regions, it's obvious that Sydney and Melbourne are losing their baby boomers to the coast.
The flight of Sydney's middle-aged to northern surfing spots has made these places some of the "oldest" spots on the map. Compared with the median NSW age of 37 years, Nambucca is 45, Tweed and Bellingen are 44 and Ballina averages out at 43. Great Lakes on the mid-north coast is the oldest spot in the state at 49, while Eurobodalla, on the south coast, comes in second at 47. At those ages, they're going to need reliable painkillers and, given the price of beach shacks, they'll also need wealth managers.
The exodus to Melbourne's coastline is just as grey. Queenscliff, that romantic spot on the coast, is the second-oldest place in the country at 51 while the Bass Coast and East Gippsland both have a median age of 45. While many observers have argued the sea-change movement is attracting young families as well as early retirees, it looks as if migration to the coasts of NSW and Victoria is still dominated by the Malibu set.
The median age on the Gold Coast, for instance, is only 37, in Cairns it's positively youthful at 34, Caboolture, north of Brisbane, is still below the state median at 37 and even Noosa, the nirvana for retired professionals, is only 42. Western Australia's coast is not so old either, with Denmark, Fremantle and Mandurah, all south of Perth, averaging out at 41 or 42.
The baby-boomer shift to the surfing spots is usually described as retirement. But boomers don't call it that. It's more of an endless long weekend. They're not retired; they're just doing consultancy work from the verandah of the beach house. Or they're telecommuting from their favourite surf break. It's called getting a life.
But the question for town planners and painkiller makers is how long it will last. Projections from the Productivity Commission estimate that the population of over-65s will grow twice as fast on the coast as it will in the cities over the next 40 years. But that assumes these surfers will still be gazing out over the breaks when they're confined to a Jason recliner in a seaside nursing home.
That might not happen. In the past week The New York Times reported that for the first time since the Depression, there were more people over 75 leaving Florida than there were old people seeking the warmth of the south. If America is seeing the return of yuppie seniors in their twilight years, then we might witness the same trend in the next 20 or 30 years.

(Australian Financial Review, "Tide may turn on sea change", 03/03/07)

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