Singles ditch apps and head to the bush in search of love

Search for love takes singles off the apps and into the bush for old-school romance Sat 27 Jun 2026 at 4:30am These days, finding love often starts with a swipe on a screen, but in the New South Wales Riverina, people are being urged to put down their phones and get back to meeting the old-fashioned way — face-to-face. Publican and self-proclaimed wing woman Emma Reynolds and her husband Brendon are gearing up to help lonely hearts find love away from phone screens. "Before we had dating apps, we also had pubs and that's where people met," she said. "We don't have that human connection like we used to." Her solution is to host a "traffic light" party at their pub in Junee, in the NSW Riverina, tonight. "So it came about because I saw the little fad that's going on about, 'Where the hell is my husband?'" Ms Reynolds said. In a viral trend on social media, people use the song Where Is My Husband! in videos that highlight their desire for a partner and frustrations with modern dating. "I thought, 'I don't know what you're looking at. They're all here; they're all here in Junee. They're all here in regional New South Wales.'" The traffic light party sees guests wear coloured wristbands indicating their relationship status: red for taken, yellow for complicated and green for single. But Ms Reynolds said the night was about more than matchmaking. "It's also a segue to bring back face-to-face contact, connection,"she said. The response exceeded their expectations. "Brendon got a phone call from the Victorian midlands to say, 'When's this party on? Because we've got a busload of 10 women coming,'" Ms Reynolds said. Romance road trip Travelling even further than the Victorian busload is Crystal Sheumack, who will travel more than 1,000 kilometres from her Brisbane home in search of her "farmer charming". The 42-year-old said she saw the hotel's social media reel and immediately thought, "I need to meet these blokes". "I've been speed dating … I've been to the supermarket and hardware store … I've even been to a plant bingo event," she said. "I haven't found someone that I've clicked with and [who's] got the same values." Ms Sheumack said she was not seeking a perfect partner, just someone genuine, an "old-fashioned bloke" with good values who is reliable, dependable and honest. She does have one practical request. "It'd be the cherry on top of the cake if they could remember to take the bin out on garbage day," she laughed. While she admitted finding a partner could feel like "a bit of a gamble", Ms Sheumack believed meeting people face-to-face beat scrolling through dating apps. "You've got to put yourself out there, go to these events, talk to people, meet people," she said. "That's the only sort of way you're going to move forward and try to find someone to spend the rest of your life with." An enduring tradition More than 200 kilometres west of Junee, another event is ready to help singles with their search. The Jerilderie B&S ball started in 1963, but "bachelor and spinster" balls first began in the mid-1800s in Australia to help isolated young people in rural areas meet. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend the Jerilderie event next month. One of the organisers of the charity event, Michael Kent, said attendance had grown significantly in recent years. "Post COVID, I think it really showed people that getting out face-to-face and communicating and just catching up with people and having a great time was really important for everyone. "We've seen a rise in numbers from around that 800 to 1,100 people for the last few years." He said "you'd be surprised" by how many long-term relationships and families start at the B&S Ball and the places attendees travel from. "We get guys from South Australia to WA, Sydney, all the way down to the bottom of Victoria," he said. Do they have 'the ick'? Both events have security protocols in place to ensure those looking beyond dating apps for genuine connections feel safe. "You can meet people online, but you don't get that sense of how tall they are, do they smell nice? You know, if they have the ick factor, I suppose," Ms Reynolds said. One thing's for certain — no-one can lie about their height in real life.