I was surprised to find this phone box in Miller St, North Sydney, with a Telstra Payphone within.

There's still quite a few around. I haven't been past in a long time but there used to be one on Johnstone Street, Annandale.

Both Annandale and North Sydney are very old parts of town, going back to colonial times. Since calls are free from public phones these days, Telstra should ditch the 'pay' bit.

That's a very old phone booth, at least 60 years old. The phone I think is probably from the 90s.

I can't recall the last time I used a PT, but it was so long ago that I was unaware that PT calls have been free for about a year.

There's a PMG box in VIC on eBay at present asking circa $4K.

I'm not sure that it really is an original public telephone box; the style is from the 1920s but most of these were replaced in the 1950s with the domed top version which supposedly had better ventilation. (Just unfortunate that the dome was made from asbestos for its thermal insulating properties.) It is possible that it was used in a covered place (like a railway station) and was later refurbished then moved to its present location. However it is definitely better that the the metal monstrosities from the 1970s.

Regarding the 'Payphone' label; coin operated telephones placed in public areas were always designated as a 'Public Telephone' by the British GPO and the Australian PMG (later Telecom). On the US ATT/Bell Telephone system they were designated as a 'Pay Telephone' or 'Pay Station' because the caller had to pay to for each local call whereas a subscriber using a telephone in their home had the cost of local calls included in their monthly rental. In the dying days of the Australian public system, by then called Telstra, when the government of the day imported Sol Trujillo from the USA, he insisted that everything had to changed to be JLA (just like America). The term 'Public' was definitely not acceptable as it had to be clearly understood that the whole point of a communication system was to make profits and certainly not serve the public.

I remember Sol, the guy who ripped the absolute guts out of one of the world's best telecommunications systems while getting well overpaid for the deed. Didn't stay long, came in, slashed and burnt then quickly left with a big bag of money, our money, the publics.

The ruined mess he left behind quickly degenerated and continues to do so today. Thanks Sol, my only pleasure from this is that I left before
you could become my boss.

BringBackTheValve
you would have noticed a few years before privatisation our govt be it liberal or labor started favouring U.S/Canadian/ foreign CEOs over Aussie ones when the position became vacant. Yep we can definitely blame our governments short sightedness or possibly feathering a pollies back pocket for destroying the third most efficient phone company in the world!

Yes, true words indeed TC.

There was no shortage of local 'vandals' at the time willing to do the deed---hell, even I could have played the part of destroyer for that matter, but no, we had to import the wrecker. Something very screwy happened, I fully agree with you.

I remember Sol

... and Fat Phil and the other guy comprising The Three Amigos.

Trujillo was offended when Rudd said "adios". He should have heard what others were saying.

Sol was an imbecile. When he bailed from an American ISP called US West his words were, "I am going down under to work at a little Aussie telco". At the time, Telstra has just gone through Stage II of privatisation and had a share capitalisation of $130bn. Today, Telstra is a little Aussie telco due to being demoted as the incumbent network owner and most of its hard assets passed on to NBNCo but then it was a top ten company, up there with BHP, Rio Tinto, Coles, Woolworths and the big four banks.

Sol was out of his depth even before he arrived and all he did whilst he was here was sack people and jack up prices.

Sol was an imbecile

The real imbeciles were those who hired him. He screwed the company (and country) and walked away with $34 million.

I've heard it said from people who worked under Trujillo that his philosophy was: profit comes first; the customer comes last.

If my memory serves me correctly, he didn't serve his full term. CEOs tend to walk away with more cash when that occurs, even when one of them leaves on less than favourable terms.

His successor, David Thodey, did a lot better with a few things. He lowered pricing on many products and he got on well with the Government. Sol was always in the headlines for being frustrated over accusations that Telstra was abusing its market power, which was a sentiment shared by many at the time.

QUOTE: ..destroying the third most efficient phone company in the world

Australia was late to privatise. The longer they delayed, the more unpleasant the surgery. This is where Sol becomes useful, they bring him in to do the slashing, he becomes a bete-noire (he doesn't mind as he can then flee back overseas)

New Vista in answer to your question !"which were first and second?

(A) Germany and France and they were both Government owned and a lot smaller areas to cover.