COME with me, if you dare, to that dark and foreboding jungle that lies west of the Baby Boomer Mountains.
I speak of course of the land inhabited by those strange creatures born prior to the end of World War II.
Here are the 60-somethings, 70-somethings and the 80-plus-year-olds.
These tribes cling together for preservation, awkwardly wedged between the advancing hordes of baby boomers and oblivion's precipice.
To this point in time it is these tribes who have marked what might be politely termed as life's "later years".
But it will never be thus.
Over the next decade the boomer juggernaut will manoeuvre its way into the 60s decade, flattening and then reconstructing all culture and generational accoutrement left behind by fleeing war babies.
In 2006 the first of the boomers poked their heads above the "60" parapet: these kids were born in the latter half of 1946, exactly nine months after demobilisation of the troops. From conception and birth the boomers have always been in a hurry.
But the real numbers spill forth after 2011 when the 60-mark draws deep into that reservoir of rising births, the early 1950s.
There are now 1.7 million 60-somethings in Australia; by 2018 there will be 2.5 million. This single cohort will accommodate a further 800,000 residents within 10 years.
The big shift into the 70s will follow over the decade to 2026; the 80s will not be colonised by the boomers until the late 2020s.
But with each advance of the boomers the tribes born prior to 1946 must move onwards, leaving behind infrastructure and customs that are ultimately redesigned in the image of the new inhabitants.
This cultural "marking of territory" is evident in language, culture and even in mating habits.
Pre-boomer language is quaintly colonial, especially among the older tribes: they talk of the "jungle" whereas we talk of the "rainforest".
WWII soldiers fought in the jungles of New Guinea, not in some tree-hugger's rainforest.
Pre-boomers are also more likely to use the term "New Australian" as both a noun and an adjective, whereas we much prefer the politically correct circumlocution of "ethnic group" and "multicultural".
There is an honesty and a directness to their language that has been lost by the boomers and others who follow.
The 60s decade remains marked by pre-boomer language as well as values. And this applies especially to the formation of relationships.
There are now 492,000 single 60-somethings in Australia, comprised of those who have chosen never to marry (about 5 per cent) as well as the separated, divorced and widowed.
In 2018, when boomers have fully colonised the 60s, the number of singles will sit at around 720,000. This means that the single-and-60 market will grow by 228,000 over the next decade.
If the boomers accept the culture of the pre-boomers then these singles are destined to spend their remaining years living independently. And many will do precisely that.
But there is a powerful argument to say that boomers will handle things differently.
This is, after all, the generation who delivered the Summer of Love. This is also the first generation to have fully benefited from changes to the Family Law Act of 1976, which introduced no-fault divorce.
Why should love and lust be the sole preserve of the young? If boomers are healthier because of their fitness regime, their spurning of cigarettes and alcohol - well, perhaps cigarettes - and their recent predilection for garden salads and noodles, then why wouldn't they expect others to share the joy of their well-preserved bodies?
Here, then, is a potential paradigm shift: whereas the current residents of the 60-something decade accept singledom as a tenet of old age, boomers may think differently.
And if so, the pairing and partnering action will begin in the coming decade.
Here is a brand new social group known as the OFFALs: old farts finding another love.
But for those who choose to remain single into old age there is always the companionship of pets. There is also the likelihood that other companionship solutions might be found.
In the 70-something decade there are 332,000 single women and only 145,000 single men. Even if this lot were predisposed to pairing up later in life, there's not enough to go around.
This leads to the notion of same-sex companionship households. Here is a lifestyle solution that gained traction in the 1920s in the wake of the near decimation of Australia's young manhood in the Great War: women lived together in a non-sexual companion relationships.
Boomer women might well find this a better option than living singly in their 70s. And in fact by that time in life I am sure there will be some married women who would prefer the companionship of another woman to that of a husband.
The point is that the territory beyond 60 remains a New World yet to be marked and perhaps marred by the baby boomersaurus. We know boomers are more numerous than any previous inhabitants of this decade.
What we don't know is how this generation will put its stamp on its language, culture and perhaps even its mating habits.
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