Dating Over 60 in Australia, and What It Is Actually Like

You are not the exception here

Women arriving at a dating site in their sixties often assume they are at the older end of it and that nobody will be interested. On this site that assumption is wrong twice over. Plenty of the women here are 60 or over, so you are not unusual, and a good number of the men are specifically looking for women older than they are rather than settling for it.

What is true is that people arrive from very different places. Widowed. Divorced at 58 after a long marriage. On your own for fifteen years and now wondering. Nobody here is going to find any of that unusual, because everybody has a version of it.

What people are actually looking for

Both things, in roughly equal measure, and it is worth being clear about which one you are. Some people here want sex and say so on their profile. Some want somebody to have dinner with on a Friday and go from there. Some want a companion for travel and are honest that they are not looking for anything physical at all.

None of those is the default and none of them is embarrassing. The mistake is leaving it unsaid, because then the first three conversations are all spent finding out, and two of them end awkwardly.

Writing a profile at 60 or 70

Three things do most of the work. A photograph taken in the last two years, in daylight, where your face is visible. Three or four sentences about what you actually do with your week, which is more interesting than a list of adjectives. One plain sentence about what you are looking for.

What is not needed is a life story, a list of what you will not tolerate, or anything about your ex. What also is not needed is pretending to be more active than you are. Somebody who says they read a lot and do the crossword at the same cafe every Saturday is easier to write to than somebody who claims to love adventure.

Meeting, at this age

Public, daytime, easy to get to and easy to leave. A coffee mid morning is the standard first meeting for good reason: it is short, it is cheap, and neither of you is committed to an evening. Parking matters more than people admit, and so does whether the place is quiet enough to hear each other, which rules out a lot of bars.

Tell somebody where you are going and when you expect to be back. This is not a comment on your judgement. It is what everybody sensible does, at every age, and our safety page explains the rest.

The two things that go wrong

Someone asking you for money, and someone pushing to move off the site straight away. Romance fraud in Australia disproportionately targets people over 55, and the ACCC's Scamwatch publishes current guidance at scamwatch.gov.au. Nobody genuine will ask you for money, in any form, for any reason. Not a gift card, not help with an emergency, not a deposit towards coming to see you.

If either happens, stop replying and report them. A report is read by a person.

Using the site on a computer

It works in any browser on a laptop or desktop as well as on a phone, and a good share of the people here prefer the computer. If you find the phone version fiddly, use the computer and do not think twice about it.

Distance

Mature dating near you is the honest version of how far people in this age band will actually travel, which matters more at 65 than at 35 and is the most common reason a promising conversation quietly stops.

What it costs

Joining, your profile and browsing are free and no card is needed. Messaging needs a paid membership, and the pricing page explains the structure in full. If you are a woman weighing this up, the page written for you is dating for women over 50.