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Journal of Rural Studies 27 (2011) 191e199

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Journal of Rural Studies

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate / j rurstud

On constructing ageing rural populations: ‘Capturing’ the grey nomad

Amanda Davies*

School of Social Sciences and Asian Languages, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Australia

Keywords:AgeingRural ageingRural planningPopulation geographySeasonal migrationGrey nomads

* Tel.: þ61 8 9266 7641; fax: þ61 8 9266 3166.E-mail address: a.davies@curtin.edu.au.

0743-0167/$ e see front matter � 2011 Elsevier Ltd.doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2011.01.004

a b s t r a c t

The world’s population is ageing, with forecasts predicting this ageing is likely to be particularly severe inthe rural areas of more developed countries. These forecasts are developed from nationally aggregatedcensus and survey data and assume spatial homogeneity in ageing. They also draw on narrow under-standings of older people and construct the potential impact of ageing (such as increased dependence onthe health care system) as negative. The construction and reinforcement of such stereotypes haveobscured public policy debate about ageing and also the rural. This paper considered how, through usinga mixed method approach, narrow understandings of rural ageing could be extended and refined. Usinga case study of grey nomads in rural Australia, the strengths and weaknesses of various researchapproaches were reviewed. The investigation concluded that both quantitative and qualitative data couldbe used to extend contemporary understandings of rural population ageing and move constructions ofthis phenomenon beyond an impending rural crisis.

� 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

In an ageing world, concern has arisen about the implications ofstructurally older populations on labour security, demand for socialassistance and health care (Aysan and Beaujot, 2009; Bartlett andPhillips, 1997; Bloom et al., 2007; Davis and Bartlett, 2008;Palacios, 2002). Global trends indicate parts of Europe, NorthAmerica, North Eastern Asia and the AustraliaeNew Zealand regionwill experience the most severe ageing in coming decades (Kinsellaand He, 2009). Within these regions, commentators have arguedthat the impact, most often presented in negative terms, will beparticularly apparent in rural areas (Joseph and Chalmers, 1998).Rural areas are expected to face labour shortages, wealth reduction,increasing levels of dependence and higher demand for state fun-ded health care (Lowe and Speakman, 2006). The characterisationof population ageing in rural areas as problematic or as animpending crisis has been almost universal, with, for example,Joseph and Cloutier-Fisher (2005) describing ageing in ruralcommunities as ‘vulnerable people in vulnerable places’. The on-going spatial and temporal imbalance between rural and urbanareas in terms of provision of social assistance and health care forageing, suitable housing and suitable recreational activitiesunderpins this ‘vulnerability’ label assigned to rural places.

All rights reserved.

Supporting the construction of rural populations as having anageing problem is a mass of quantitatively assembled ‘facts’. Thesefacts are most often drawn from population censuses, with thecensus data being used to quantify growth in the proportional shareof older populations. Median values for indicators of social andeconomic well being are commonly used to link the growth in olderpopulations to negative social and economic outcomes for thebroader population (McCracken and Phillips, 2005). For example, ifthe proportion of people aged over 64 is correlated with medianincome we find that places with larger proportions of older peoplehave lower median incomes (Davies and James, 2011). We might,therefore, conclude that this increases the vulnerability of thecommunity to economic downturns. However, such an analysis is,in reality, misleading as it does not consider that older peoplegenerally have lower expenditure rates than the broader pop-ulation, with home production subsidising reduced expenditure(Luhrmann, 2008). Nevertheless, such broad generalisations aboutthe impact of population ageing remain commonly referenced.

This paper reviews how dominant perspectives about olderrural populations have been informed by positivist demographicmethods and the limitations of this approach. It is argued thatwhile such methods can provide helpful insights into rural pop-ulation ageing, our understanding of this complex populationtransition can be limited by a reliance on quantitative data. It isargued that by considering a broader range of approaches it ispossible to construct a more complete understanding of the natureof rural ageing and the implications of this demographic shift. This

A. Davies / Journal of Rural Studies 27 (2011) 191e199192

paper, therefore, contributes to an already large literature insupport of the use of both quantitative and qualitative approachesfor investigations into population change. This paper’s focus on therural ageing population presents not only an original contributionto this literature, but also a timely investigation into the dataunderpinning the popular perception of rural population ageing asan impending socio-economic crisis.

To illustrate the argument, this paper examines the older pop-ulation in rural Australia. In particular, the investigation focuses ona sub-set of Australia’s older rural population the ‘grey nomad’population. This case is interesting because, as explained later inthis paper, it is difficult to identify the size, spatial location, spatialmovements and the socio-economic characteristics of grey nomadswithin the population census. However, given that Australia’s greynomad population is estimated to be about 2 per cent of thecountry’s total population (or about 450,000 people), and that greynomads tend to concentrate in particular locations at particularseasons, it is probable that this seasonal population has consider-able implications for the social and economic character of ruralAustralia (Cridland, 2008; Mings, 1997; Onyx and Leonard, 2005).As the socio-economic character of a temporary population isdifficult to ‘capture’ within population censuses, there has beena tendency in research and policy to either present grey nomads asa homogenous group or to ignore this population altogether inaccounts of rural ageing in Australia. In this paper, some of thesocial and economic complexities of this ‘hidden’ grey nomadpopulation and, thereby, rural ageing are considered through usinga mixed method approach.

The remainder of this paper is structured into three sections.The following section reviews previous studies on rural ageing andolder seasonal populations. The review centres on identifying howpopular perceptions of rural ageing have been informed bya dominant reliance on quantitative data from population censuses,and how these understandings of rural ageing can be advanced byusing a broader range of research methods. The third section of thispaper presents a case study based illustration of how a mixture ofresearch methods can underpin the development of more detailedand robust understandings of rural ageing. The final sectionconcludes the arguments of this paper.

2. Constructing ageing populations: making the case fora mixed method approach

The world’s population is getting older at a rate faster than atany other period in our recorded history. This acceleration isexpected to increase as the baby-boomer population (those bornbetween 1946 and 1964) moves into older age (Kinsella and He,2009). The difference between ageing in the ‘urban’ and ‘rural’also appears to be increasing. This is the case for countries classifiedas more developed as well as those classified as less developed.Given underlying variability in labour force structure, resourcedistribution and accumulation patterns, political systems andcultural capital between countries, it follows that the impacts ofageing rural populations will be varied. Some commentators havebroadly acknowledged this variability (Harper, 2006). However, itremains that within policy arenas the impacts of ageing pop-ulations in rural areas are largely considered as being homogenousand resoundingly negative (Joseph and Cloutier, 1991; Restrepo andRozental, 1994; United Nations Economic Commission for EuropeWorking Group on Ageing, 2008).

Homogenous characterisations of rural ageing assume a spatialevenness in the occurrence of ageing and also in its impact. Thismarginalisation of spatial difference and complexity minimisesopportunity for innovative policy and community responses topopulation change. It is also problematic in that it provides support

for homogenous characterisations of the rural. Spatially homoge-nised characterisations of rural populations have supported theconstruction of the rural as the problematic other (Murdoch et al.,2003). In a similar vein, in regard to population ageing, rural areasare often thought to be facing an impending crisis (Joseph andCloutier-Fisher, 2005). For example, Lowe and Speakman (2006,p.9) commented that stereotypes about rural lifestyles and ageinghave increasingly been combined to describe older rural residentsas in ‘a state of in-activity.in a place of in-activity’. Such negativestereotypes are potentially damaging as they obscure public policydebates about both the rural and ageing.

There is, however, a considerable body of literature contestingthe homogenous and stereotyped rural, which could lend itself toproviding improved understandings of rural ageing. Much of thisliterature draws on interpretive traditions to deconstruct positivistunderstandings of the rural and reconstruct the rural as havingmultiple, overlayed spaces, imaginings and communities. Thisresearch engages with postmodern social theory and method andhas been considered a response to the critical limitations of posi-tivist inquiry and quantitative methods in population studies(Graham, 1999; Greenhalgh, 1996).

In moving away from stereotypes of the rural landscape,economy and population, researchers have considered not onlyalternatives to stereotypes but also how these are constituted,produced and (re)produced (Halfacree, 2006; Murdoch et al.,2003). A considerable portion of this research has considered themethods that have been used to construct understandings aboutrural populations. In particular, attention has been given to doc-umenting the limitations of traditional quantitative approaches topopulation studies (Brown and Knopp, 2006; Cadwell, 1997; Coaleand Watkins, 1986; Graham, 1999, 2000; Sivley, 2004). Critiques ofquantitative approaches to understanding population change havequestioned the assumptions researchers make when assigningcausation to observed relationships in the data and the spatialhomogeneity of observed trends. However, those limitationsacknowledged, quantitative data can provide useful and appro-priate information if the research question takes into account thelimitations of the research approach (see for example, Dwyer,2008).

Much of the progress made towards unpacking homogenouscharacterisations of rural livelihoods, cultures and landscapes hasfocused on identifying the ‘other’ in rural spaces (Halfacree, 1993).For example, researchers have explored the diversity in the livedexperiences of rural women (see for example, Pini, 2002, 2004) andhave examined the ‘rural’ as a queer space (see for example,Gorman-Murray et al., 2007). Contrastingly, far less research efforthas been directed at unpacking the homogenous characterisationsof older rural people. Consequently, despite the progress in thebroader discipline, older populations tend to remain treaded asa homogenous group. That said, over the last decade there has beensome work directed at challenging stereotypes about older people(Hardill, 2006). Particularly useful for this paper are those studiesthat have reviewed temporary older population in rural spaces. Thefollowing paragraphs summarise the core findings of these studies.

A number of studies have explored the ‘other’ in rural ageingand, consequently, the strengths and weaknesses of variousapproaches for understanding the dynamics of population ageing.A study of particular relevance to this paper is Happel and Hogan’s(2002) work on ‘Snowbirds’. Happel and Hogan (2002) examinedthe issues involved in estimating the size of temporary older‘snowbird’ populations in the United States. The snowbird pop-ulation is thought to drive a considerable swelling of the populationin some rural localities for up to six months each year in the UnitedStates. Happel and Hogan (2002: 227) commented ‘[s]easonalpopulations remain an elusive topic for U.S demographers. While

A. Davies / Journal of Rural Studies 27 (2011) 191e199 193

temporary residents are widely recognized (sic) in extent, magni-tude, and their social and economic impacts, relatively few effortshave been devoted to developing nationwide, statewide (sic), oreven local estimates of the phenomenon’.

In a review of previous research, Happel and Hogan (2002)found that the size and demographic characteristics of temporarypopulations were often identified through using the nationaldecennial population and housing census. By considering thenumber of, and growth in, housing units classified as seasonal,researchers were able to get some information about the size andgrowth of the seasonal migrant population. However, in using thecensus, researchers were not able to identify seasonal migrantsliving in other types of accommodation such as mobile homes.Researchers were also not able to extract data on the age ofseasonal households and, therefore, were not able to disaggregateolder households from younger households. Furthermore, theUnited States decennial census is conducted in early April eachcensus year, which is well past the peak period for seasonalmigration.

In a 2007 study on temporary migration in Florida, Smith andHouse (2007) reported similar difficulties in using the UnitedStates decennial census for examining seasonal populations. Smithand House (2007, p. 438) stated ‘[u]nfortunately, there are no datasources that provide complete, consistent coverage of temporarymigration in the United States. Instead, estimates must be cobbledtogether from a variety of administrative records, business statis-tics, and sample surveys. This severely limits our ability to analyze[sic] the determinants and consequences of temporarymigration oreven to determine the number and timing of temporary moves’.While Smith and House’s and Happel and Hogan’s comments werelimited to the United States decennial census, there are comparablelimitations in the national population censuses of most countries.

Smith and House (2007), noting the limitations of the census,developed a model for estimating the size and broad socio-economic characteristics of the temporary migrant population inFlorida. They used a direct survey of 500 households, which wasconducted each month between September 2000 and December2003. To capture temporary visitors staying with permanent resi-dents, they used data from a survey of out of state visitors and tocapture temporary visitors staying in hotels and motels they con-ducted an additional survey. Adding together estimates from thesethree surveys they were able to estimate the total number oftemporary migrants, change in the number of migrants over themonths and general characteristics of temporary migrants.

Happel and Hogan (2002) also considered the potential of directquantitative surveys to contribute to understanding the nature ofsnowbird migration. They suggested that while direct surveyscould provide useful data from which broad generalisations aboutthe size and demographic characteristics of seasonal populationscould be drawn, direct surveys were limited in their usefulness forquantifying the overall size and nature of the snowbird population.This limited usefulness was due to the difficulties in establishinga statistically significant sample size, particularly given the lack ofreference data from the decennial census. Direct surveys also ten-ded to focus on single destinations, and rarely considered theimpact on points of origin or seasonal migrants that movedbetween more than two destinations in a year. Happel and Hogan(2002) noted a number of other ‘secondary’ sources that could beused to quantify seasonal migration of older people. They foundthat when these secondary sources had been used therewas a needon the part of the researcher to assume a homogenous relationshipbetween symptomatic variables and seasonal populations. Thisassumed relationship usually remained untested and Happel andHogan (2002) therefore concluded that secondary data waslimited in its usefulness for predictions over the longer term.

Clearly, while quantitative data can provide researchers withbroad information about population ageing, there is a limit to thequestions that can be asked of this data (Obermeyer, 1997). Asalready mentioned, the limitations of quantitative methods foraddressing some research questions on population change havebeen well versed in the literature. Such critiques have formed thebasis for arguments in support of what has become known asthe ‘cultural-turn’ in research, which has seen a popularisation ofthe use of qualitative method for investigating population change.Commenting on this cultural turn Fricke (1997, p. 825) commented‘[we are in a] new era. marked by a self-conscious search formethodologies that will allow [researchers] to incorporate culturalmeaning into their explanations of demographic processes’. Thecultural turn has seen researchers increasingly engage with inter-pretivist theories and research techniques such as ethnography, in-depth interview, participant observation, and focus groups toadvance understandings of populations and population change(Crang, 2002).

While the ‘turn’ has resulted in some arguing in favour ofqualitative approaches over quantitative approaches, others havetaken amoremoderated perspective arguing that both quantitativeand qualitative approaches can offer considerable insights intounderstanding population change (Graham, 1999; Hardill, 2006;McLafferty, 1995; Yeung, 2003). This paper follows this secondline of argument that both approaches have strengths and weak-nesses. Indeed, if we again consider the findings of Happel andHogan’s (2002) study, qualitative methods would not have eli-cited data useful for overcoming the limitations presented by thequantitative approach. However, a qualitative study, which exam-ined the spatial and temporal nature of the assumptions betweensymptomatic variables and seasonal population, could improve thereliability of the models built on the secondary quantitative data.Furthermore, a qualitative study examining the nature and cause ofmultiple (or non-circular) seasonal moves could help inform theselection of variables for a more robust quantitative model ofseasonal migration (McHugh and Mings, 1996).

Much of the qualitative work on population ageing has consid-ered how individuals experience ageing. In particular, researchattention has been directed towards identifying practices andspaces for physically and mentally healthy ageing. Rarely thoughhave these studies specifically considered how experiences ofageing differ across space and time, and consequently there hasbeen a tendency to treat older people as a homogenous group.However, in recent years a number of researchers have sought toaddress this limitation. For example, in the edited volume byAndrews and Phillips (2005) the contributing authors consideredhow space and place affected the older person and their experienceof ageing. Similarly, van der Hoonaard (2002) used in-depthinterviews to reveal great differences in the lifestyles, expectationsand experiences of older people located within the samegeographical community and with similar financial and culturalbackgrounds. McHugh (2000) discussed the strengths of ethnog-raphy for understanding population ageing. Such research confirmsthat not only are ageing populations socially and economicallydiverse, there is also great diversity in how individuals experienceageing.

The purpose of this paper is not to seek to promote qualitativemethods over quantitative methods or vise versa. Rather, the focusis on exploring how a mixed method approach might provide formore robust and spatially and temporally sensitive constructions ofrural ageing (also see Onyx and Leonard’s (2007) study on greynomads and Ulyssean ageing). The following section looks at howmixed method might be used to provide more information aboutthe grey nomad population in rural Australia and, thereby, pop-ulation ageing in rural Australia.

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3. Putting into practice a mixed method approach: greynomads in North West Western Australia

This section of the paper presents thefindings of amixedmethodstudy into grey nomads in the North West region of WesternAustralia. Fig.1 shows the studyarea. Thepurposeof the studywas toidentify the size, location and socio-economic characteristics of thegrey nomad population in the region. The investigation revealed notonly interesting information about seasonal retired migrants butalso illustrated how a mixed method approach can provide forrobust understandings about rural population ageing.

The term ‘grey nomad’ generally refers to people aged 55 yearsand over, who travel for extended periods of time, generallydomestically, and generally in self-equipped camping vehicles.However, that said, individuals identifying as grey nomads mightalso include those travelling for relatively short periods and thosewho stay in hotels, private houses or other accommodation. Greynomads are similar to the ‘snowbirds’ of the United States (Mings,1997; Onyx and Leonard, 2005). Like snowbirds, grey nomadsseek out favourable climatic conditions, moving to the warmernorthern parts of Australia during winter and the cooler southernparts during summer. Grey nomads are people who ‘normally’reside in both rural communities and metropolitan areas. Many‘urban’ grey nomads often spend more than four months a year inrural areas, utilising rural health care and infrastructure andcontributing to the local economies.

Cridland (2008) estimated the size of Australia’s grey nomadpopulation to be about 2% of the total population. Cridland’s esti-mate was based on the findings of a survey conducted by CaravanIndustry Australia (CIA). The CIA’s study used sales and survey data,with no information available about the sample size for the study.Furthermore, the CIA’s study focused on grey nomads who usecaravan or motor homes, and not those who rely on private homes,tents or hotels for their accommodation. The difficulties faced byCridland (2008) in relying on this secondary survey data weresimilar to those observed by Happel and Hogan (2002) and Smithand House (2007) when using secondary data to estimate thesize of snowbird populations.

Fig. 1. Northwest Region

The first stage of this analysis of grey nomads in the North Westregion of Western Australia was to identify the size of grey nomadpopulation and where grey nomads were located. Although variousgovernment agencies responsible for the management of roads andcamping facilities had identified popular destinations for greynomads in the region, there had not been an assessment conductedon the number of grey nomads or how long they visited particularlocalities for. Therefore, to identify the size of the grey nomadpopulationwe first examined data collected through the AustralianBureau of Statistics’ Population and Housing Census (APHC).

The APHC is conduced every five years and collects data ona range of social, economic and demographic topics. The APHC is,arguably, the most popular data source for quantitative reviews ofageing in rural Australia (see for example, Newton and Bell, 1996).Data is collected in predefined categories and organised intospatially hierarchical units. The ‘truism’ that rural Australia has anageing problem has been constructed through spatial and temporalcomparisons of averaged trends in ‘indicator’ variables. Forexample, the National Rural Health Alliance Inc. (2009, p. 1)examined differences in population age structures between ruraland metropolitan areas using data from the 2006 APHC to confirmthat ‘the ageing of the population is more marked in country areas’.

The APHC can be used to establish a rough estimation of the sizeof the grey nomad population. Data collected through the APHC isorganised into ‘place of enumeration’ and ‘place of usual residence’.It is possible to identify howmany visitors were in a location at anyone time by comparing the difference in the total populationbetween a locality’s ‘place of enumeration’ data and ‘place of usualresidence’ data. This analysis was conducted for the Statistical LocalAreas of the North West region of Western Australia. Table 1 showsthe total number of usual residents in the region and also the totalnumber of visitors. It also shows the total number of visitors agedover 55 years and 65 years. Fig. 2 illustrates these results.

Data from the APHC shows that at the time of the 2006 census,approximately 25 per cent of the people in the regionwere visitors.Of these visitors, about 44 per cent were aged 55 years or older andabout 30 per cent we aged 65 or older. However, it is not possible toconclude from this data how many of those older visitors would

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A. Davies / Journal of Rural Studies 27 (2011) 191e199 195

identify as a grey nomad. Indeed, given that the region has a largefly-inefly-out workforce and the town of Broome is a popularmeeting place for individuals conducting business in the region, itis highly probable that a number of older visitorswould not identifyas a grey nomad.

The APHC is conducted only every fifth year and on only one dayin August. This presents a number of further problems when usingdata from the APHC for identifying the size and location of the greynomad population, with specific issues including:

� Grey nomads generally tend to travel to the northern parts ofAustralia over the winter months, including during Augustwhen the census is conducted. During the summer monthsthey tend to travel to cooler southern localities. The APHCwould have very limited use for identifying the size and natureof the grey nomad population in these southern localities.

� Anecdotal evidence suggests that rarely do grey nomads visitonly one location. Generally, grey nomads make a number ofmoves. Indeed, some travel to new destinations every fewweeks for many consecutive years. The APHC provides limitedscope for identifying where grey nomads travel and how longthey stay in different destinations.

� The APHC provides limited scope for identifying the degree of‘population churn’ in the grey nomad population. Do the sameindividuals remain as ‘grey nomads’ between census periods oris there is a considerable population churn in this particularcommunity?

Therefore, while the APHC can be used to provide broad infor-mation about the size of visitor populations, it reveals little aboutwho grey nomads are, where they travel, for how long they traveland about how they use the services and facilities of rural towns.

Direct surveys can be used to refine broad observations obtainedfrom the APHC about visitor populations. Cridland (2008) used thisapproach in his study on grey nomads, surveying approximately1900 grey nomads. Cridland (2008) examined a variety of social andeconomic variables including marital status, age, income, healthstatus, and mobility. Cridland (2008) found that although somepatterns did exist, these were not significantly different frompatterns observed in the APHC for the wider ‘older’ population.

To learn more about the grey nomad population in the NorthWest region of Western Australia, a survey of grey nomads andservice providers was conducted. The survey was conducted duringfour visits to the region between 2008 and 2009 with 200 people

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Fig. 2. Visitor Population in Western Australia’s North West Region, 2006 (Source:Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007).

A. Davies / Journal of Rural Studies 27 (2011) 191e199196

participating in face-to-face surveys (Davies et al., 2009). Thesurvey revealed that:

� The majority of grey nomads tend to be from other parts ofWestern Australia. Those from other parts of Australia were thesecond largest group, with very few international travellersidentifying as grey nomads.

� Individuals identifying as grey nomads had a variety of incomelevels and sources, but generally were self-funded, priceconscious and had lower than average incomes.

� Many grey nomads noted having made what they regarded as‘tax effective investments’. Such investments included thepurchasing of a caravan, car, motor home or boat in an effort tominimise their cash savings. The purpose of minimising cashsavings was to ensure they were able to receive public healthcare benefits.

� Most grey nomads tended to be aged between 58 and 68(Davies et al., 2009).

The survey also revealed considerable diversity in the group inregards to their length of stay and location. Simplistically, the greynomads surveyed could be classified into three groups: These were(see Davies et al., 2009 for further detail):

1. Long term, repeat visitors based in a single location for somemonths. This group could be divided into two subgroups. Thesewere:a Those who stayed at managed caravan parks (eitherprivately owned or owned by local governments)

b Those who stayed at bush camps (either managed orunmanaged camping areas).

2. Short term repeat visitors based at a single location for up toa month each year. This group could also be divided into twosubgroups. These were:a Those who stayed at managed caravan parks (eitherprivately owned or owned by local governments)

b Those who stayed at bush camps (either managed orunmanaged camping areas).

3. Mobile, once-off visitors travelling from place to place alonga pre-determined route. These visitors mainly used caravanparks and formal campgrounds and were often undertakingjourneys ‘around Australia’.

The survey also investigated how grey nomads spent their days.Long term campers in remote bush camps tended to be highlyindependent, carrying supplies of drinking water, chemical toiletsand safety equipment. People who sought a remote campingexperience and often stayed in remote camping sites for manyconsecutiveweeks. At the campsites therewere a series of informal,self organised social activities such as morning tea, and campfiredinners. Popular recreational activities included fishing, swimming,walking and, to a lesser extent, four-wheel driving. Many long termcampers were experienced campers. These individuals generallymaintained a permanent residence in a metropolitan area.

Grey nomads who visit caravan parks for long periods of timetended to form the most extensive networks of informal socialactivities including aerobics, dancing, morning teas and fundraisingactivities. They also organised and participated in informal envi-ronmental stewardship activities including voluntary spatialfishing bans and bushland regeneration projects. Long termcampers staying at caravan parks tended to participate in activitiesorganised by the local rural communities. Popular activitiesincluded sporting events, community markets and fairs andcommunity movie nights. These campers also made regular use oflocal shops, pharmacies, medical centres and service stations.

Short term campers who were repeat visitors to an area tendedto have established activity patterns. Many identified with thelocality as their ‘second home’ and became involved in activitiesorganised by the local rural community. These short term campersalso often met up with friends they had first met at the camp ona previous trip. These long term friendships shaped the nature ofsocial activities for short term campers with short term campersmore likely to be involved in social activities organised within theirown friendship groups rather than participate in the ‘whole ofcamp’ activities organised by long term campers.

The third group of grey nomads, mobile once-off visitors, tendedto be based in caravan parks and formal camping areas for shortperiods of time. Many used local shops, pharmacies and medicalservices, however, rarely participated in community organisedactivities. For these visitors, their main activities were associatedwith visiting popular sites and attractions. Mobile, once-off visitorswere less likely to be involved in the informal social activitiespopular with longer term campers. However, that said, manyreported making good friendship networks with other travellers,who they would then meet up with at various destinations alongtheir trip.

The survey identified that grey nomads are certainly nota homogenous group. However, the survey did reveal evidencesupporting the construction of three broad categories of greynomads. These categories were based around the type of campinggrey nomads participated in. The survey also revealed a range ofdifferent patterns of interaction with local rural communities.Again, these broadly aligned with the type of camping grey nomadsparticipated in. While the survey only focused on grey nomads whowere camping (including those in RVs or caravans) and not thosestaying in private homes or hotels, it did provide some moredetailed information about the size of the grey nomad populationand the general spatial and temporal behaviour of this group.

The survey, however, did not address why grey nomads:1. Identify as grey nomads, 2. Choose to participate in a particulartype of travel, or 3. How and why their activities change over time.Such information could be useful for refining the observed cate-gories of grey nomads, and also provide important information onhow these categories might change over time. Therefore, to extendthe findings of this study and identify why older individualsparticipate in seasonal travel in rural areas and identify as greynomads, a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with greynomads in the study region. These interviews, conducted by theauthor in 2010, lasted up to 5 h and were usually conducted overa number of interview sessions. The interviews took place at eitherthe camp or usual residence of the interview participant(s). Thestory of Ken and Maureen, summarised below, provides a typicalexample of the type of information gained from these interviews.

Ken and Maureen self identified as grey nomads. Both in theirlate 60s, and married for more than 30 years, they travel for up tosix months each year in their well-appointed caravan. Theygenerally travel to the same region and often the same few campingareas. During their interviews they recounted stories of people theyhadmet, dinners they had shared and life long friendships they hadformed with other grey nomads. Their stories centered on thepeople they had met and the funny and sad moments they hadshared. Interestingly, in recounting these stories they gave littleattention to the places they visited, regarding place as little morethan a backdrop.

Maureen and Ken’s ‘permanent’ home is located south of Perth,Western Australia in a lifestyle village for people aged over55 years. They have lived in the village for about four years, sinceKen suffered a stroke that left him partially paralysed. Prior tomoving to the village, Maureen and Ken lived in a large familyhome in a nearby suburb. Maureen and Ken immigrated to

A. Davies / Journal of Rural Studies 27 (2011) 191e199 197

Australia from Oxford in England in their early 30s, with six youngchildren, to pursue employment opportunities. With Ken quicklyfinding employment as a skilled tradesman in the alumina refin-eries south of Perth, it did not take them long to make friendsamongst the expatriate community.

Through many years of hard work and saving Ken and Maureenwere able to retire in their early 60s as self-funded retirees. Theydownsized their home, putting the profits into superannuation.Since that time, their main source of income has been the dividendsthey receive from their superannuation investments. Ken andMaureen are careful to reinvest dividends from their superannua-tion to ensure that their cash savings remain low enough to qualifyfor public medical benefits.

When Ken and Maureen first started their grey nomad travelsthey travelled to remote bush camps along Western Australia’scoast. They stayed at these bush camps for months at a time, onlyvisiting nearby towns every few weeks to refresh their watersupplies, purchase fresh foods, and replenish their fishing tacklesupplies. The only news of the outside world would come from“new arrivals” and “occasionally when the wind was blowing theright direction and we could pick up the regional news station”.There were usually between 10 and 30 couples at the bush camps,which were located on unreserved crown land or pastoral stations.Generally, permission to camp on pastoral lands was obtained (on-site) from pastoralists for a small fee (from $0 to $100 per week).

Since Ken had his stroke, Maureen and Ken have started trav-elling to caravan parks. These offer more facilities, such as freshwater on site, ablutions, and communal kitchens. With Ken havingrestricted mobility, Maureen finds the prospect of towing a caravaninto a remote bush site daunting. They have found that caravanparks do offer them a very similar experience to remote bushcamps, but with the comfort of better access to assistance shouldthey require it.

When asked about how and why they decided to live half oftheir year in this way, Maureen commented, “For us it was aboutgoing back in time, it was about freedom, getting away from all theimposed structures and seeing how we would go living without allthe modern gadgets and comforts. It is also about the weather, wereally don’t like the winter in Perth, so we try and escape it. .But Ithink most of all it is about the sense of getting away from all thestructures and rules and just living very simply, and enjoying theactivity of living, and seeing how we go by ourselves”.

Maureen and Ken described their normal daily routine as “busy,the day just goes so quick. First we get up and have breakfast. Then,if we have reception, watch the morning news and tidy up a little.Then we go out and see what is happening. We might go tomorning tea or afternoon tea, or perhaps just chat to a few friends.Before you know it its dinnertime, and we have to decide to go eatwith others, or have a night by ourselves. We go to bed early so wedon’t have to run the generators late into the night for power. Mostpeople go to bed about the same time”.

Ken and Maureen described how they fitted into the greynomad communities. “They seem to be regulated by commonsense, just by the normal rules of society. A lot of it is intuitive, justthe same rules and normal practices as in day to day life. You just bepolite and respect others. No one really breaks any rules. As we areall older we better understand the need for rules so show greatrespect to these. In all of our travels we have only felt that we didn’tfit in once, and that we were on the outer. We were staying ina caravan park with some friends of friends. We really were notcomfortable. But we went to the same caravan park the year afterand fitted right in”.

In commenting on their involvement in nearby ‘permanent’rural communities, Ken and Maureen explained that they relied onrural towns for their food and water supplies and also for access to

medical and banking facilities. Whilst they had not made manyfriendships with ‘permanent’ residents, they did feel they wereactive participants in the broader community. Over the years theyhad become familiar with the ‘culture’ of different places and felta sense of comfort in this familiarity. Maureen and Ken also pointedout that many grey nomads actively participated in environmentalrehabilitation work and overall the grey nomads had a very strongethic of environmental stewardship, which is firmly linked to place.

Further commenting on their participation in rural communi-ties, and their distinction from other ‘visitors’ Maureen indicatedthat the grey nomad communities were in themselves ‘ruralcommunities’. She explained that while they may not have thepermanency and history of ‘townships’ they did have strong socialnetworks, informal economic networks (barter and trading ofgoods/services), mechanisms for minimising and resolving conflict,mechanisms for promoting participation and a variety of informalleadership structures. Grey nomads felt they belonged to thecommunity, and the place. They were not simply a group of indi-vidual visitors camping near one another.

In overlaying Maureen and Ken’s reflections on their experienceof being grey nomads with those of 19 other couples the followingthemes were identified:

1. Grey nomads are not a homogenous group in terms of socio-economic characteristics or in regards to the nature andpurpose of their travel. However, therewas great consistency inolder travelling individuals self identifying as being a ‘greynomad’ and belonging to a ‘grey nomad community’.

2. Individuals’ definitions of grey nomads varied, but were consis-tent in the followingways:greynomadswereusuallyover55andwere retiredor semi-retired;greynomadswerenot tourists; greynomads belonged to a larger grey nomad community.

3. There was little relationship between the heterogeneity insocio-economic characteristics of grey nomads and they ‘type’or ‘length’ of journey they were on. For example, it is notpossible to say that the wealthier grey nomads stayed incaravan parks, or that younger grey nomads stayed in bushcamps.

4. Grey nomads actively participate in the social and economic lifeof ‘permanent’ rural communities (towns), but generally do notconsider themselves members of these communities. Thosegrey nomads that returned to a particular site or region yearafter year felt they belonged to the permanent community ofthat region. Those that visited many different sites identified asbelonging to a much broader grey nomad community that wasnot associated with any particular place.

Australia’s grey nomad population makes up a considerableproportion of rural Australia’s non-permanent population. Despiteconsiderable diversity in socio-economic characteristics and thetype of travel undertaken, many grey nomads have a strong sense ofbelonging to a much larger grey nomad community (Onyx andLeonard, 2007). This community is not situated, or head-quartered, within a specific town or region, but has been identifiedas firmly located within the rural. For rural Australia, this diverseand mobile community is shaping the social and economic char-acter of many communities. While there is great diversity inparticularities of the social and economic activities of grey nomadsin rural spaces, in general, grey nomads inject money into ruralbusinesses, they participate in community events and undertakeenvironmental stewardship activities (Cridland, 2008; Onyx andLeonard, 2005, 2007). Therefore, in general, grey nomads do notfit well into the popularly held stereotype about older rural peopleor the perception that population ageing is a socio-economic crisisfor rural Australia.

A. Davies / Journal of Rural Studies 27 (2011) 191e199198

4. Conclusion

Population ageing is a major issue facing all developed countriesand many developing countries across the world. As populationscontinue to structurally age, governments must address theimplications for health care, workforce security, and infrastructureneeds. To ensure the effectiveness of public policy responses,ageing needs to be considered as spatially diverse and the olderpopulation as heterogeneous. There is also a need to specificallyconsider the nature and spatial structure of population ageing inthe rural. With rural spaces often identified as most vulnerable tothe negative outcomes of population ageing, there is a critical needfor contextually grounded information on rural ageing.

When considering rural ageing there is a need to move beyondstereotypes about rural livelihoods and landscapes and also aboutrural population ageing. There has been a large amount of researchgiven to the formerof these two interrelated topics,with researchersunpacking meanings of rural and exploring rural others. Thesestudies have considered the implications of research methods forunderstandings of rural ageing, and have collectively emphasisedthe importance of using a variety of research methods and datasources for understanding population change.However, despite thisprogress in rural studies, few studies have considered rural ageing,with older rural population ageing remaining largely defined asproblematic. This paper sought to address this research gap.

This paper examined population ageing in rural Australia,focusing on the grey nomad population. Often excluded fromassessments of rural ageing, this temporary seasonal older pop-ulation causes a considerable swelling in the total population ofmany rural towns. This case study was used to illustrate the coreargument of this paper that understandings about populationageing in rural spaces can be advanced by considering a range ofresearch approaches and data sources. Given the commonly refer-enced ‘ageing crisis’ facing rural communities, perhaps it would betimely to extend this investigation into considering the temporaland spatial complexity and character of older rural populations.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the very thoughtful and helpfulcomments provided by two reviewers of an earlier edition of thispaper. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance provided byMs Julie Cammell, Ms Janine Hatch and Professor Matthew Tontsfrom the University of Western Australia in collecting data for thisstudy. Funding for this study was provided by Rangelands NRM.

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