Arranged marriages are common in many parts of the world, but not in Australia.

On Friday, however, two young Australians who had never seen each other were married in Sydney.

Glenn Emerton, a 24-year-old hardware salesman, and 22-year-old Leif Bunyan were chosen by the audience of a local radio station who judged them to be the winners of a competition to find the most compatible couple.

Careful match-making

Few ordinary weddings are as public - but of course this was no ordinary wedding and the courtship was extraordinary.

One in three marriages in Australia ends in divorce

Glenn and Leif were selected from 14 finalists who wanted a partner and told not to contact each other in any way.

But live on air each was interrogated by an astrologer, a numerologist and a psychologist about their compatibility.

Each had to answer questions from listeners - about sex and how often they washed their underwear - and their responses were fed into a lie detector.

Nervousness

Glenn had to propose on air and every moment of the wedding breakfast in the grand ballroom of a city hotel was broadcast.

The pair saw each other for the first time as the marriage ceremony began.

Glenn Emerton: "I, Glenn Phillip Emerton..."

They looked and smiled, and Glenn could not conceal his nervousness.

Sponsors of the radio station supplied the wedding gowns and suits and a honeymoon in Paris.

The station says one in three Australian marriages ends in divorce and believes this couple will be better off than people who marry simply because they have known each other a long time.