Brisbane girl Marnie Clarke is looking for love. The poster reads: "Lost - the romance in my life. Last seen some time ago in the dating wasteland that is Brisbane. "Will respond to wine and cheese. Can be enticed with good conversation." Ms Clarke has taken her search for a man in his mid-20s to early-30s, who is "amusing and optimistic", to the streets of West End, Annerley, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane CBD and Paddington. She's taped 65 posters across the city, including several in the tunnel of central train station, since November last year.

One man responded to her first ad within two days. "I didn't really know what to expect. I guess, I hoped I would connect with people like me. And, if nothing else, I hoped it would make people laugh," she says. "The first time when a guy emailed me ... I texted my friends and said 'holy moly I've got one'." Unfortunately there wasn't any chemistry with that chap, but "he got the ball rolling". Ms Clarke has been inundated with more than 40 responses since, although half have come from strangers simply expressing their appreciation for her sense of humour.

She's been on dates with about seven different men. "It's kind of an emotional rollercoaster this whole thing," she admits. Ms Clarke anticipated meeting unsavoury folks at first, but saw her strategy as no different to online dating. Social media has aided her quest, with many passers-by sharing photos of the posters via Facebook and Twitter. "I can only do so much sticky-taping in one day, so Facebook is helping me a lot," she said.

Brisbane's dating scene is tough, to say the least, according to Ms Clarke. "I can only speak for myself and my friends, but I will say that at our age you do find that it is more difficult to meet people," she says. "It can be tough. I didn't want to do online dating again, because I was really bored of it. "I started this to have fun. I thought, 'how can I get some dates this summer'." Ms Clarke hopes to share her experience with others in writing a magazine article in the future.

In the meantime she remains realistic, but optimistic. "I highly doubt that it would be so easy that a future husband will come along [through this], but I won't lie, it would be really nice," she said.