When Allan McGrath first saw Mary Rose McGrath, then Nevett, at a Harston Hall ball, it was a moment he'd never forget.
“I had a couple of dances with her, went home that night and said - ‘that's the girl I want to live the rest of my life with’," Mr McGrath said.
“But it didn't happen straight away,” he said with a laugh.
Sixty years later, and with four boys and four girls between them, the couple is celebrating 60 years of wedded bliss.
After three years of courting, Mr and Mrs McGrath were married in Tatura on April 15, 1961.
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Allan was 23, Mary was 25 - two years his senior.
“I boss him around sometimes, but don't get very far,” Mrs McGrath said with a laugh.
Their relationship blossomed naturally.
Both grew up on dairy farms, Mr McGrath in Stanhope and Mrs McGrath in east Girgarre.
But Mr McGrath said there were a few run-ins before they tied the knot for good.
“Quite often I played a lot of cricket on a Sunday,” Mr McGrath said.
“And this tall, red-headed woman used to walk in with four daughters and a son.
“You tell me what 20-year-old didn't notice that.”
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Eventually, Mr McGrath gathered the courage to invite her out.
“There was a ball coming up, and I asked her if she would be interested in coming, and the rest is history, that started what I call now a 63-year-old relationship,” he said.
While it wasn't their plan to have eight children, Leo, Paul, Bernard, David, Maureen, Christine, Louise and Tracy quickly became the joys of their lives.
Mr and Mrs McGrath followed in their parents’ footsteps in dairy farming, and as the children grew older, they helped out on the property.
“I was always in the dairy and loved getting out of the house, we worked as a family unit,” Mrs McGrath said.
“She was a workaholic,” Mr McGrath added.
Of course - there'd been hardships.
When the children married off and the couple were left on their own, Mr McGrath was diagnosed with prostate cancer at 64 - and faced a difficult decision.
“Our eldest son said ‘you've got to do something Dad - sell the cows’," Mr McGrath said.
“The way I looked at it, you never know how these things are going to go and I didn't want to leave Mary running the whole ship. But we survived, I'm still here.”
The couple bought a property in Mooroopna to retire in - with their family and a rich community still around them.
Then, four years ago, Mrs McGrath had a heart turn and a stroke - and three years later, Mr McGrath had a fall and broke his thigh bone.
For four months during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr McGrath recovered in hospital - only allowed one visitor at a time.
“We've had our warnings, but we're still here,” Mrs McGrath said.
Their secret to success, after all these years?
“Give and take - plenty of it . . . take life as it comes,” Mrs McGrath said.
“You do have hardships, but that is life, so deal with it the best way you think you can.”
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For Mr McGrath, "no secrets" was vital.
“Talk about everything,” he said.
“The way I look at it, I own nothing, Mary owns nothing, it's all ours - that's the way we've lived our lives.
“I couldn't wish to get a better partner in life . . . I can honestly say, we have never had a heated argument.”