Silver Trophy won by Lismore Telephonists in a quiz competition for Colac and district in 1955 and 1956 Presented by W.J. Madden District Telephone OfficerTwo handled inscribed pedestal Silver Cup mounted on bakerlite stand .Two inscribed shields on stand won by Lismore Telephonistts Inscription on front of cup. "Telephonists Quiz Competion/Colac District Annual/Premier Team/Presented by MrW.J.Madden/District Telephone Officer" Inscibed on left hand shield "1955/Lismore" Inscribed on right hand shield " 1956/Lismore"trophy, silver cup, telephonists, quiz compertition, lismore victoria

Mr O’Brien operating the telephone exchange in the Post Office at the corner of Sackville street and Cox StreetMr O'Brian working at the Port Fairy Telephone Exchange 1927 telephone, telephonist, post office, exchange, o’brien, sackville street

During the North-East Victorian bushfires of 1952, Helen Felton, Postmistress of Tintaldra post office, worked continuously for five days and nights to ensure the flow of communication through the disaster. Helen Felton conceded to leave her post for only 45 minutes while “the fire passed within fifteen feet of the spot where she was working,” burning down the garage and neighbouring store, before returning to work. Today, technologies such as cells on wheels, mobile exchanges on wheels, and NBN Sky Muster trucks are deployed in the wake of a disaster to ensure survivors have access to communications services. In a disaster, access to mobile coverage or landline connection to emergency services can be essential for the survival of life and property.emergency, bushfires, communications, regional, post office, telephonist, postmistress, helen felton

Three of the Telephonists at the telephone exchange in the Post office building in Sackville Street.Black and white photograph of two males and a female gathered around the telephone exchange deskTELE EX PF 1927_0001telephones, telephonists, port fairy, telephone exchange, equipment

Typed below photograph, "Ringwood City Council Staff - 1960". Typed sheet in sleeve lists the staff in photograph and reads, "Photograph of Town Hall staff taken on the occasion of Ringwood being proclaimed a CITY 1960. Standing (back row left to right) Robert Moore (Rates Office), James Allen (Health Inspt), Robert Glassford (Eng. Asst.), James Rouse (Rates), Howard Tyrell (Dept. City Engr.), Jozsef Benzinger (Supt. Parks & Gdns.), David Wilson (Eng.) and Jeffrey Porter (Eng.). Second Row down, Wally Ross (Traffic Insp), Murray Jones (Eng.), Jim Clerk (Bldg. Insp.), Ernie Dall (Bld. Dept.), Jim Johnson (Rates), Les Steeth (Dog Ranger), Billy Duff (Hall Kpr). Clarrie Burns (Works Supt.), Keith Gore (Ch. Hall Kpr).Second row up from bottom - Marg McAdam (Health Ctre), Gwen Collocott (Rates - Accts. Machinist), Mabs Cleverly (Sec. D.T.C.), June Eyres (Steno), Nancy Gibson (H. Help), Judy Hubbard (Steno), Hazel Lyons (Sec. C/Eng.), Wilhelmina van Wijngaarden, (rates), Sr. Hildebard Weinroider (Health Care), Maureen Charlwood (Telephonist).Bottom row - Sr. Edna Ahlslton (Health Care), Lindsay Ewart (Rate Colltr), Jean Matthews (Sec. T/C.), Vic Faravoni (D.T.C.), Dr. Wm. Hewitt (Med.O.Health), Fred Dwerryhouse (Town Clerk), Alan Robertson (City Eng.), Ray Forde (Con.Eng.), Kit Gurling (typist/engrs.), Des Steele (Bldg.Suryor), Sr. Linda Turnley (Health Centre-H'mont).

Employment is a key area that blind or vision impaired people are under-represented. These photographs were taken to demonstrate and provide examples of how blind and visually impaired workers can undertake skilled positions as switchboard operators. In the first image, a man wearing a headset sits behind a small switchboard and on the desk is a sign that reads "Please buzz for attention. Our receptionist/telephonist is blind". In a second image, two people sit at a desk. The woman uses a device to locate a key on the switchboard whilst wearing a headset. Beside her a man points to the key and holds a telephone receiver to his ear. In the third image, a seated man reaches forward to find a socket in the switchboard, with an audio jack attached to his finger. Beside the switchboard a man stands and holds his wrist, possibly guiding him.employment, royal victorian institute for the blind

Elizabeth (Betty) Ann Speak attended Clarendon Presbyterian Ladies College 1937 - 1938. She won the Junior Tennis Champion in 1938. Betty worked as a telephonist at Coleraine Post Office after leaving CPLC in 1938. In 1949, she married Leslie James Steff from Konongwootong. They had two daughters. In 1967 Betty returned to work at the Coleraine Post Office and worked for 17 years, moving to the Hamilton PO after the Coleraine PO closed around 1980. She continued to play tennis throughout her adult years. Daughter Gwenda Steff, who donated the trophy to the school in 2016, says 'Mum was passionate about her tennis. She had a formidable backhand shot that few could return. She played Saturday afternoon competition tennis up until her late 40's and she instilled her love of the game into both my sister Margaret and myself. Mum was always too humble to acknowledge her amazing abilities - both on and off the tennis court. But this is an early public acknowledgement of her skills.'Medium silver cup with double handles and silver base and stem on melamine standEngraved on face of cup: C P L C / Junior Tennis Champion / 1938 / BETTY SPEAKbetty-speak, sports, tennis, trophy, 1930s

Australia's first telephone exchange was opened in Melbourne in August 1880. It was operated by the Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company. Owned by W. H. Masters and T. T. Draper, the Manager of the Company was H. Byron Moore. This was only two years after the world's first exchange in the United States, and just four years after Bell first spoke on a telephone. The exchange was located in the old Stock Exchange building at 367 Collins Street, a site now occupied by the Commonwealth Bank. In 1884, the operations of the Company, by then known as the Victorian Telephone Exchange Company, had grown considerably and were transferred to Wills Street, Melbourne. Private ownership of this company continued until 1887 when it was bought out by the Victorian Colonial Government. Other colonial governments followed this example. By 1910, the growth in telephone services made additional accommodation necessary. This could not be provided in the existing building in Wills Street and arrangements were made for a new exchange in Lonsdale Street. Alexander Graham Bell visited Australia in 1910 to advise the Federal Government's Postal Commission. Telephone exchanges were established in Adelaide with (48 subscribers), Hobart (10 subscribers) and Launceston (35 subscribers). The first exchange in Western Australia was established in 1887 and located in a small three-room cottage in Wellington Street, Perth with 17 subscribers. The year 1888 marked the opening of the Fremantle exchange in a small room at the rear of the Town Hall. There were nine subscribers. Australia's first automatic exchange was installed in the GPO in Sydney, in 1911, for internal use. But the first automatic exchange for public use was opened at Geelong in Victoria in the next year July 1912 with 800 subscribers. Melbourne's first automatic exchange was opened in the suburb of Brighton in 1914; the first public automatic exchange in NSW began operating at Newtown, Sydney in 1915; and Queensland's first was installed at South Brisbane in 1925. 1929 saw the opening of Tasmania's first automatic exchange in Hobart. an automatic telephone service. In June 1977, the manual telephone exchange at Swansea was replaced with an automatic service and made Tasmania the first State in Australia to have a fully automatic network. The half-century following Federation saw the growth of the automatic operation; a great extension of trunk line services; The automatic telephone contributed greatly to the early popularity of telephones in Australia. It was a quicker and more convenient way of communicating with another person on the same exchange — instead of having to go through tedious processes with the operator. From its introduction, the number of automatic telephones in operation grew to a remarkable extent. In 1886, the first trunk link of 16 km was connected to the exchanges of Adelaide and Port Adelaide in South Australia. Then, in 1907, the first inter-capital telephone trunk line was opened between Sydney and Melbourne. It was followed by a line between Melbourne and Adelaide in 1914. Sydney and Brisbane were linked in 1923, and Perth and Adelaide in 1930. In 1930, the first overseas calls from Australia came possible with the introduction of a radiotelephone service to England, and through there to Europe and America. A similar service opened to New Zealand in the same year. Initially, trunk channels linked different manual trunk exchanges. It was necessary for a succession of trunk operators to connect the appropriate channels, one after the other until the connection was made. As trunk traffic grew. the system became increasingly unsuitable. More trunk operators had to be employed and so labour costs increased. It was a tedious and slow way of making a long-distance call, and it was sometimes hard to hear, particularly when several exchanges were linked With technical advances, trunk switching moved from manual operation through a partly automatic phase. Automatic transit switching equipment was used and only a single operator was required to connect a trunk call to a wanted automatic subscriber. Until well beyond the middle of this century, the majority of trunk traffic went through this single telephonist control. In 1953, the number of telephones in use in Australia passed the one million mark. By then, the need for improvement in the automatic exchanges was becoming well recognised. The need was for a telephone switching system which would do a better job more economically than the conventional step-by-step ex-change. This led to the adoption of the Crossbar system as the standard in automatic telephone exchanges in 1960. The introduction of Crossbar switching was a big step forward in the automation of trunk calls. It substituted automatic switching and charging equipment for the originating trunk operator, and improved the quality of the system radically. Before the introduction of the Crossbar system there were often very long delays in obtaining a booked trunk call, and the quality of sound was often very poor. With Crossbar, Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD) became a reality. A trunk call by STD was as easy to make and almost as fast to connect as a local call.The item was made around the 1940s and used up until the 1970s in manual cord telephone exchanges as a way to time and charge users for trunk calls made over the telecom system of the time. Post Master General dept. - Trunk Call Timer.Inscribed PMG, C. of A, 37. Bell chimes at 3 min increments.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, timer, trunk call, telephone, cord exchange

Pt Fairy Manual Telephone Exchange 1976Two coloured photographs mounted on a single green card The Port Fairy Manual Exchange circa 1976telecommunications, telephonists, equipment

A manual telephone exchange, manufactured by British Ericson, History Originally in use at Cohuna. When Cohuna was converted to automatic dialing this exchange was relocated to Harcourt, to become the third and last in a bank of three exchanges. At this time Harcourt exchange was expanded to 260 lines. It was connected to the district central exchange at Castlemaine. Operated by mains power with battery back-up. Harcourt exchange was operated by Betty McLean, Miss Mitchell, Josie Hogarth, Mr. & Mrs. Heighway, Bill & Valerie Milford, Irene Bolitho and others. Decommissioned approx. 1970. Incoming calls prompted the fall of a shutter. The operator made the connection by plugging the line into the number requested. While responding to calls the operator needed her hands free to jot down the billing particulars or to write out each telegram. Nearby stood pigeonholes with various items of stationary. Many telegrams were received each day, particularly advising fruit growers on interstate markets. Most telegrams were phoned through by the operator. This exchange was restored in 2004 - 2005 by Trevor Grant.. Many people relate to this exchange. It is a survivor of the pre-electronic era when ‘telephonist’ was a common occupation. A vital element in the communications between households and between district orchardists and their suppliers and clients.A manual telephone exchange, manufactured by British Ericson complete with operator hands-free headset/earphones and speaker mouthpiece. Wooden case with one hundred shutters and sockets. Accommodates twelve lines with extension leads with associated switches. Operated by mains power with battery back-up. Decommissioned approx. 1970. Incoming calls prompted the fall of a shutter. The operator made the connection by plugging the line into the number requested. This exchange was restored in 2004 - 2005 by Trevor Grant.