The incredible milestone was commemorated with a romantic lunch at the Riverbank Moama.
The couple first met in 1969 and after three years decided to marry at the Echuca English Church.
“We decided it was the right time to do it,” Sheryl said.
“I didn’t think we would live that long.
“Fifty years is half a century.”
Ted and Sheryl were both 21 when they married on Saturday, December 30, 1972.
“It’s a lifetime,” Ted said.
“I finished my apprenticeship, and we bought a house in Darling St, Echuca in 1971.”
In 1976, the couple left Echuca on an adventure to the small town of Zeehan, Tasmania with their newborn son.
“Just after Anthony was born, I got a position at the Renison Tin Mine, which is the largest mine in the Southern Hemisphere,” Ted said.
After a decade in Tasmania and raising two new daughters, the pair moved to Western Australia for two years.
Blast from the past: Ted and Sheryl McMaster on their wedding day in Echuca in December 1972.
The McMaster family then returned to Zeehan in 1988 before retracing back to Echuca when Ted was employed at Recycle Plastics Echuca.
“Our family priorities took us back,” Sheryl said.
“In ’76 to 2000 we had our beautiful children, and now we have beautiful grandchildren. Seven of them.
“The most important thing to us is our family.”
The couple plans to travel to Darwin and South Australia in their retirement.
“I want to travel,” Ted said.
“We’ve nearly been around Australia, there’s only a couple of places we haven’t done.”
Ted and Sheryl shared their secrets of longevity in a relationship to people of the younger generation.
“The secret is learning to get along with each other and accept each other for the faults we have because nobody is perfect,” Sheryl said.
“You’ve got to have respect for the now and the future.
“Go with your gut feeling and whatever your heart tells you to do.”
Ted’s view.
“Don’t keep grudges,” he said.
“People have arguments, but the thing is not to take it to bed.
“Just be kind.”
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