October 07, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 24, 1428

SYDNEY: It’s spring in Australia and the ‘grey nomads’ are drifting south again after their annual winter migration to the tropical north.

Like the ‘snowbirds’ of North America, Australia’s nomads are mostly retirees who seek a perpetual summer – but the migratory species of the two hemispheres exhibit some distinctive characteristics.

While cashed-up elders in Canada and the United States may winter in Florida before returning home, some of their counterparts in Australia just keep going, towing their homes behind them.

“We sold the house and hit the road,” says 68-year-old retired fireman and small businessman Terry Kilburn. “I got rid of my lawnmower, rakes and all that crap.” Three years later he and his wife Kay, 66 – mother of two, grandmother of five and a newly-minted great-grandmother – are still roaming.

“I don’t miss the house at all,” Kay said over a cup of tea outside their caravan in a country park. “It takes me five minutes to do the housework.” Tens of thousands of people like the Kilburns are estimated to be on the road at any one time on the world’s biggest island, says Cindy Gough, author of “The Grey Nomad’s Guidebook” published this year.

“There’s a huge variety of people out there, everyone from the battlers who are doing it tough in a second-hand caravan to people who drive around in their half-million dollar campervans,” she said in an interview.

“Basically there are three different kinds of Grey Nomads: those who sell everything, buy a caravan and travel indefinitely with no home to come back to; others who keep the house but take long-term trips of up to five years; and those who just go north for winter for six months or so each year.” The Kilburns fit the first category, and say they hope never to live in a house again, although Terry admits to a slight fear of what the future may hold.

“If I have to come off the road, because of ill health perhaps, the question of how I’ll afford to buy a house is a bit of a cloud on the horizon,” he said.

The travelling life can be relatively cheap. The Kilburns paid $14,000 for the 4.7 metre caravan which is now their only home and spend a little over $100 a week to use council parks.

“We visit the kids once a year. We meet travelling friends all around the country – we’ve made more friends travelling than we did in 15 years in our last house.” They have criss-crossed the vast continent, clocking up a leisurely 300km or so a day when on the move through outback deserts, rolling farmlands or meandering along the stunning coastline.

They have no television in the caravan but are both avid readers who enjoy bush walks and visits to historical sites. “Graveyards are great,” says Terry.

Many Grey Nomads are driven by the sense that life is slipping away and they need to make the most of the years they have left.

“They say ‘Let’s spend the kids’ inheritance, go and enjoy our lives before we get too old and attached to a hospital bed’,” said a caravan park owner who declined to give his name.

Ron Fletcher, 67, hit the road two months ago when he was diagnosed with lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking, stress and brief holidays snatched during his career as a lawyer.

“I’ve enjoyed every moment of it,” he said in a leafy caravan park in Sydney as he and his partner Maxine headed towards their home in South Australia after joining the northern migration for the winter.

“I’ve never before had more than two weeks holiday in my life.” Doctors have told him he has between one and five years of life left, and he says he intends to spend a lot of the time travelling, having retired from his law practice shortly after the diagnosis.

“I wish he had retired earlier,” said Maxine, who is also 67.

“It’s winter in Adelaide, cold. We thought let’s go somewhere north where it’s warm. We just took off. All he wanted to do was get to the coast and go fishing in the sea.”The contrast with a life of work and stress is what struck Ron.

“You never quite know what’s over the horizon. The caravan parks are full of people with the same state of mind – there’s a sense of camaraderie no matter what you are driving or living in.” Retired butcher Jeff Jamieson, 60, who had just met the Fletchers, said he and his wife May had hit the road for six months annually for the past five years.

“It’s a fantastic lifestyle,” he said. “Everybody has worked hard to get to this position in life, and nobody knows how long they are going to live.” At 60, Jamieson is near the leading edge of Australia’s millions of baby boomers now heading for retirement – and perhaps the lure of the road to nowhere.—AFP