Historical information

This is a telephone directory of the telephone numbers and addresses of residents and businesses in Melbourne in 1933. There had been several early attempts in the second half of the 19th century to link places and homes in Victoria by locally-made telephone systems with a commercial telephone system in the same year successfully linking a business in Melbourne to a branch office in the same city. The first telephone exchange in Australia was established in Melbourne in 1880. This 1933 telephone directory shows the growing number of private residents and businesses to have the telephone installed but the installations were still confined mostly to the more affluent private residents and to businesses.

Significance

This book is of considerable interest as a reference guide as it provides the names and addresses of those who had a telephone installed in Melbourne in 1933. This will be of great use to researchers, especially those compiling their family tree.

Physical description

This is a soft cover book of 364 pages. It has a buff-coloured cardboard cover with the title and other printed information on the front cover and four multi-colour advertisements for Melbourne businesses (Barnet Glass Tyres, Renown Dry Cleaners, C.O.R. Motor Spirit and Edward Dyason, Sharebrokers), also on the front cover. The back cover has a colour advertisement for Gilbey’s Gin. The pages listing the householders’ telephone numbers and addresses in alphabetical order are white with black printing and there are 20 pink pages at the back (business and professional listings). The book has been bound with glue. The cover is somewhat crumpled and the pages are dog-eared.