A Love That's Gone the Distance

On September 19th 1992, two individuals unknowingly embarked on a whirlwind love story, that would still be going strong 25 years later.

Clare Murray was the flame haired 26-year-old on holidays from the UK, and Anthony Featherston was the Aussie with tails just on a usual night out with his brother and sisters. The setting for this love story? A Bachelor and Spinsters ball at the Sheepsback in the Melbourne CBD, an Australian mating ritual, where eligible boys and girls dressed up and consumed their fair share of local brews.

Not knowing many people, a mutual friend of Clare’s sister (who already lived in Melbourne) invited her out on the town with a big group from Williamstown. Nervous and unsure, she reluctantly accepted the invite and met this new group of friends, that included two sisters: Jacqui and Jenny Featherston. The sisters’ house in Electra St Williamstown was always the place to go before their crew would hit the town. Unbeknownst to Clare, this would certainly not be the last time she stepped foot in this house.

“At our house in Electra St, it wasn’t unusual to have a house full of different girls, because having my two sisters who weren’t much older (than me) they always had lots of friends coming over and popping in. A lot of people would find that unusual, but we didn’t,” Anthony explained.

Luckily for Anthony, amongst those girls that night would be his future wife.

After a great night at the B+S ball, the next day he called her, and they organised their first date.

“I met Clare in the city, and we went to have a feed, I was starving as I normally am, and Clare’s going ‘oh I’ll be right, I don’t want anything to eat’, and I’m standing there like mate I could eat a leg off a chair,” he said.

Other than a clear disparity in their eating habits, the pair hit it off and began dating. Unfortunately, Clare had only gained entry to Australia on a temporary working visa, that would expire in July 1993.

The couple during their early days of dating.

After 10 months of dating, they both knew that Clare going home was inevitable, but whether should would be coming back wasn’t quite as certain.

“I wondered if when I got back (to the UK), if my feelings would be the same, because I didn’t know if it was just a holiday romance.
“Once I got back home with my friends, my family, distractions and social life, I didn’t know if I’d feel the same way.
“Deep down I knew I would, but to be fair I wanted to be true to both of us, so neither of us made any commitments,” Clare admitted.

Today, long distance relationships are aided by technology, but in 1993 handwritten letters and weekly phone calls had to suffice.

Clare and Anthony still hold those letters dear to this day, however when being interviewed for this story, they read these letters a loud to each other for the first time in years.

In the first letter he sent, Anthony detailed his plans to visit Clare for Christmas that year.

“After Clare left I went down to the Atomic Bar (in Williamstown) and got a job as a bouncer on a Friday night, just to get some extra cash, to save up the money to get over there.
“I think I realised then, I was saving up for an engagement ring as well,” Anthony smiled.

In the December of 1993, Anthony said hello to his first white Christmas and met Clare in London.

“I didn’t actually plan to propose that day, but we ended up going to Buckingham Palace, and we ended up on a bench in St James Park.
“Clare was sitting there and I said ‘would you like to be my wife?’, and she said ‘I don’t know’, and I’m sitting there thinking ‘ok not the response I expected’.
“Then I looked and she’s sitting there laughing and said ‘well you haven’t asked me properly yet!’, so I got down on one knee and said ‘will you marry me?’, and she said ‘of course’,” Anthony tearfully recounted.

Prior to the engagement, Clare had already started the lengthy and expensive process of immigrating to Australia. A few months after the engagement and Anthony going home, Clare got some devastating news.

“When I put my application in, I was trying to emigrate on my own merit of being a nurse, and as the date for my outcome was getting closer and closer we were both getting very excited.
“We were so excited that we could finally plan the wedding, and be together.
“Then I get this letter, rejecting my application.
“I could not believe it, I was absolutely gutted,” exclaimed Clare.

The couple had already set a date for the wedding in January 1995, and quickly began scrambling to try and revert the rejection. Clare pleaded with her case manager.

“I’m a nurse, I’m more than qualified, and I’m getting married!” she said.

Her case manager sorted through all her paperwork again, and realised that right at the bottom of the last page of Clare’s original application, she had mentioned she was ‘dating an Australian’. Luckily for the couple, her manager was able to change the code on her original application, to allow Clare to come to Australia on spousal sponsorship without waiting the minimum wait time again.

“Within a few weeks my application was approved!”
“However, we had to go to the consulate and ‘show proof of our relationship’, which was a little bit of an insult.
“Even though we had nothing to hide and were very genuine, we weren’t scared, it was just disappointing that we felt like we had to prove something that was so real.
“We were just a bit bitter about that,” Clare said.

Clare and Anthony today, at their home in Newport.

Clare was finally given her emigration date: September 20, 1994, two years and one day exactly since they first met on the dance floor of a Bachelor and Spinsters ball.

“I still remember now getting that phone call saying we had a date, I was just ecstatic that it was only 82 days until I got to see her again.
“It was still nearly three months, but that didn’t matter because we had a date and we could finally move forward,” Anthony explained.

The couple said their vows on the 7th of January, 1995. Three children and three labradors later, they are still happily married living in Newport Victoria.

Their love for each other today is palpable, they overcame distance and adversity, and can certainly say they have a love that’s gone the distance.