The premise of this week’s column might be a bit hard to believe, but I stepped into a time machine not once but twice in the last few weeks.

My first trip, much like the plot of the first Back to the Future movie, took me to the past.

Over the Christmas break my family went camping by lovely Wye River on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria for a few nights.

A lively campground that felt much like 1963 – not because of poor maintenance of the grounds or limited technology. Everything was in fact picture perfect and in great condition. Rather the demographic makeup of our fellow campers, roughly reflected the demography of Australia six decades ago.

In 1963 we saw the highest share of people in the 0 to 17 age group in Australian history (35 per cent). The kids on the Wye River campground probably made up closer to 50 per cent.

In the 1960s, Australia had countless new suburban housing developments where children (0-17) would have made up more than half of the population.

I experienced this look into our past demographic distribution from the perspective of a 41-year-old dad of two.

As an elder Millennial I am used to being part of the demographic majority in Australia – not during the camping trip.

It was quite nice to see a hoard of kids managing their own affairs, leaving the parents to themselves and organising games and activities by themselves on their bikes.

That’s no longer occurring in today’s suburban housing developments where children are being driven to activities and spend most time under close supervision of some sort of adult.

Is the lack of unsupervised playtime a bad thing? If it was, are we parents to blame for this? Are we simply not giving our kids enough room? Are we obsessed with managing their every move as we want to shield them from the smallest harm? Have our planners and developers failed us? Have our cities become less safe in recent decades so that we couldn’t possibly send our kids out to play independently anymore?

Data suggest that Australia the 2020s is a safer place than it was in the 1980s, but is that the case because we are protecting our children better or are we overreacting to a reality that no longer exists?

Back to the future 

My second trip in the time machine, much like the plot of the second Back to the Future movie, took me to the demographic future.

I was on a flight to Noosa, one of Australia’s most popular retirement hotspots. At age 41 I was among the older people during the camping trip but on the flight to Noosa I was possibly one of the youngest people on the plane.

While not a single person on the flight would’ve been under 30, I estimate around 75 per cent to have been of retirement age.

It felt liked I stepped into the future of Australia – at least into the future of Australia if we turned off the migration tap.

Noosa has become a sought-after destination for retirees. Photo: Kindel

We will not see a future where 75 per cent of Australians are of retirement age. In 2100, over 28 per cent will be of retirement age according to UN forecasts – that’s a lot but it’s not as much as my plane trip.

The point of experiencing what a demographic setup might feel like is quite a nice break from constantly thinking about demographics and crunching numbers.

Now, after having experienced the joys of the demographic time machine I might have to get my hands on an actual time machine. Stay tuned.

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher is a co-founder of The Demographics Group. His columns, media commentary and public speaking focus on current socio-demographic trends and how these impact Australia. His podcast, Demographics Decoded, explores the world through the demographic lens. Follow Simon on Twitter (X), Facebook, LinkedIn for daily data insights in short format.