Maryborough Match Making Machine

About Project

A particularly swift courtship and marriage followed the arrival of the ship ‘Ariadne’ in 1862. William McKintyre was on the wharf when the ship arrived, as he later recalled, “I had the pleasure of distributing copies of the Maryborough Chronicle to a good few lassies, some of whom were remarkably winsome. I was so smitten with the charms of one (Mary Sutherland) that I presented her with two copies, spoke to her next Thursday, proposed to her, was accepted, and married her on the following Saturday.”

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Matchs Made so Far

Having heard the story of William McKintyre and Mary Sutherland, the expectations of finding a mate were somewhat heightened for new arrivals to Maryborough. This became something of a problem with bachelor’s and their potential brides taking to impromptu courting and loitering on the docks, making unloading more hazardous and inefficient than necessary.
An enterprising ad salesman at the local newspaper struck on an idea to solve this problem: by providing a one-stop-shop for both match making and marriage licencing, they could encourage many marriages and subsequently increase purchases of public notice announcements. To keep costs down the process was automated, and the resulting apparatus installed on the footpath outside the newspaper.

Info

Russell Anderson
Artist and Fabricator
Maryborough, Queensland
Location