I know that the rural population only makes up seven percent of the voting public, so I wonder if a similar percentage makes up the rural baby boomers within Australia. As yet, none of the writers on this subject has mentioned this aspect.
What is the situation facing these people?
Declining medical and other services available in the country.
No superannuation as the only way farmers achieve a retirement income is to sell the farm, but these days not even the sons of the family want the burden of paying off a farm so Dad and Mum can retire.
My father worked his property until he was 75. Only then did he sell the farm to his only son, a baby boomer, who then had to pay it off to enable Dad to retire to an urban lifestyle. Dad is now 93 and still a self-funded retiree who doesn't collect a pension.
Country people in past years never expected to retire. Someone in the family continued to work the property or manage the house after Grandpa and Grandma finally sat in the rocking chair.
There is a group of baby boomers who have spent their lives on the land contributing to the welfare of the nation, paying off the property again on a bank loan so their parents could retire.
What is the future for these baby boomers?
It is now called child abuse to leave a country property to your children, with all the debt and hard work such an inheritance means.
These baby boomers recognize this and have educated their children to be able to earn an income in the cities of Australia.
What are the long term implications for rural Australia?

Within 12 years (2020) Australia’s oil production will be a fraction of that today and the volume of oil available to buy on the world export market will be down 30% leading to very high prices. All nations (except for those still exporting oil) will be in a state of economic contraction and the seachange/treechange migration will be reversed as people move to larger cities to access remaining services and distribution networks. There will be large numbers of, essentially, homeless elderly in our largest cities. This may be solved to some degree by people renting spare rooms in the overly large houses being built recently. Food will be very expensive due to decreased production (due to oil shortages, high urea prices and declining phosphate production). This will lead to an end to the obesity epidemic and to people growing food in urban areas of necessity to supplement what they can still afford to buy. Every additional person (born here or immigrant) will place an increased burden on an already overstretched food supply system. This future is very different to the one described by Professor Hugo which is based an a continuation of current economic trends. Questions of population are intimately bound up with energy supply and demographic arguments need to address this if they are to have any validity and to serve as a basis to population/immigration policy!

Firstly, I must agree with "Michael in Adelaide", the peaking of oil, both in Australia and globally will have vast ramifications for all humankind. Australia, despite the silence from our political leadership, industry and the majority of our population, is facing a social and economic upheaval that will rapidly dwarf any single demographic issue (baby boomer retirement issues). We are now facing the most dangerous issue that will have profound affects on all in our communities. Without cheap reliable sources of energy (specifically cheap oil), economic development and therefore growth cannot be sustained. Without growth, economic collapse and therefore societal collapse (to what degree is unknown)will begin to occur. Financial markets and the free-world economy are based on continuous growth and econmic development. Despite our abundance of other energy resources, i.e. coal and natural gas, none of these sources of energy can replace oil, particularly in the transportation industry. Without transportation, Australia will grind to a halt and baby boomers and the remainder of the population will hit a wall. Policy needs to be urgently developed now to address the energy issue. Everything else including the problems facing the baby boomer generation will pale to insignificance if this one single issue is not addressed.

The era of the family farm is coming to a close. Farms will become corporates. Instead of bank loaning, they will be selling shares. Babybooming is going along nicely, never been bettor off. When it gets cold you go north, when it gets hot you go south, You can play bowls all year round. When the phone rings ya don't answer it; it could be an indian, or it could be one of ya kids, lookin for a baby sitter.

While I appreciate this article, it does not address the important aspect that we (the babyboomers) have had all the attention all our lives. We are not about to give that up in retirement. This has political overtones and may well lead to babyboomers having more political influence then previous pensioners (Graypower 2). If I was a politician, I think I would initiate some research into this area as well as some of the other areas noted in this article. In future years the babyboomers will hold significant political power by numbers and they are more likely to use it then previous generations to force agendas that interest them.