Population mobility, ‘usual residence’ and the census: the case of Australia’s grey nomads

Australia’s public heath response to COVID-19 included the temporary closure of state and regional borders in an effort to significantly curb population mobility. For those who were travelling at the time, the assumption seemed to be that they could simply return home, and resume travel when it was safe to do so. While it was recognised that mobility restrictions would cause difficulties for international tourists as they did not have a permanent residence in Australia, the assumption for domestic resident travellers was that they were ‘away from home’ and could therefore simply return to their place of ‘usual residence’. Such normative framings of travellers as ‘away from home’ or away from a ‘usual residence’ present challenges for Australians who engage in practices of bi-locale and multi-locale forms of residence, for those that do not identify as having a single place of usual residence, and for the permanently nomadic. This includes a diverse range of sub-population groups: those experiencing secondary homelessness; seasonal labourers; backpackers; highly mobile Indigenous peoples; longdistance commuters; travelling show families and workers; permanent house-sitters, and; grey nomads (the focus of this paper).