Quick, tell someone!

thermalben's picture
thermalben started the topic in Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 12:22pm

Had a larf seeing this outdoor ad in Adelaide this morning. How old must this be? Telstra marketing the 'convenience' of payphones (surprised it's not Telecom!).

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 12:24pm

Not to mention the fact that you won't find a barrel like that anywhere near the Fleurieu Peninsula without driving for at least three hours.

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mothart Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 3:27pm

Now now ben, don't bite the hand that once fed you.
Both the fleurieu and payphones where once vital to your existence.
Besides, isn't that the trough?.. That's what I was always told... Barrel factory on it's day.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 3:39pm

Ha! Can't remember ever using a payphone, not for surfing purposes anyway. And certainly not to tell anyone that I just got barreled!

Although I do recall racking up a large 0055 account in my early teens, calling the Ocean Graffix report five times a day. In fact I'd routinely call all of the 0055 surf reports around the country, 'just to see what the surf was doing'. That and the BOM coastal waters telephone line as it had ocean observations from Cape Willoughby.

Ah, the good ol' days, eh?

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mothart Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 4:02pm

Good ol' days?..
Petrol & beer where cheap,
Grommets had respect,
& the mid had 4-6ft waves 6 days a week.
Good ol' days... There will never be another time like it!

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indo-dreaming Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 4:38pm
thermalben wrote:

Ha! Can't remember ever using a payphone, not for surfing purposes anyway. And certainly not to tell anyone that I just got barreled!

Although I do recall racking up a large 0055 account in my early teens, calling the Ocean Graffix report five times a day. In fact I'd routinely call all of the 0055 surf reports around the country, 'just to see what the surf was doing'. That and the BOM coastal waters telephone line as it had ocean observations from Cape Willoughby.

Ah, the good ol' days, eh?

Ha Ha i use to do the same and ring the boating/coastal report.

We once discovered a local phone box was faulty, you didn't have to put any money in but could ring anywhere, was awesome while it lasted.

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groundswell Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 5:56pm

Used to do a similar thing as well, ringing berou of meteorology ocean hotline a few times a week for that, so much easier now.
Its a shame in a way that payphones are getting pulled out in most places, im sure in most places there are less than a tenth of the payphones around that used to exist.
They can be good for calling over seas friends and should still be around for safety reasons imo.(getting bashed or raped, rolled whatever, lost your phone etc.

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mothart Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 6:06pm

Aren't telstra talking about turning em into wifi hotspots?

Shatner'sBassoon's picture
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Shatner'sBassoon Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 6:43pm

The good ol' days are still here. Goldphones! Free phonecalls worldwide if you know how. Check the next country pub you go into. Believe!

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yorkessurfer Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 7:07pm

I heard that moth about phone booths being turned into wifi hotspots. Imagine all the random people loitering around them with devices in hand?

Back in the day I found out you could ring the Bureau of Meteorology on a Friday night and ask to speak to the Duty Forcaster. Some bored bureaucrat sitting in an office staring at screens would come onto the phone and I would ask them for detailed swell forcasts for the weekend claiming to be leading a diving expedition(they didn't like surfers).
One time the Duty Forcaster radioed through to a ship steaming through the Bight for me and came back with a report of a 4 to 5metre swell on the rise!
That was before the wave buoys, Internet and all that jazz we rely on these days....

inzider's picture
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inzider Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 7:25pm

phone booths are wifi hotspots here in unzud, havnt seen to many rock spiders lurking around them as yet.

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mothart Friday, 17 Oct 2014 at 8:02pm

Did you get onto that last time you where over shatner?

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 12:20pm

BREAKING NEWS (only so I can bring the above photo to the fore, again):

"Local, national and calls to mobiles will now be free from Telstra payphones"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-03/telstra-has-made-its-15000-paypho...

Supafreak's picture
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Supafreak Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 12:29pm

Can’t remember the last time I saw one on the street. Very good though for those less fortunate than most . No need for vandalism if there’s no money inside. Superman will be stoked if they start popping up .

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Blowin Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 12:35pm

Is that you in the photo, Ben?

It’d actually be pretty nice, in this day and age, if someone had to go and find a pay phone when they had the urge to tell everyone they’d found a quiet sandbank which is pumping. Better than having them immediately upload it to Insta in situ.

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zenagain Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 12:46pm

I reckon that's a great idea and could certainly help out disadvantaged people. Having said that, last time I was back home I was in an unfamiliar area looking for a payphone, took ages to find one.

I forsee a decrease in vandalism and a ten-fold increase in prank calls.

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garyg1412 Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 2:04pm

I was party to second hand phone booth vandalism once. Over the road from our rental was a phone booth that got vandalised by some petty thieves and the guts had been ripped out. Thought I'd be the good Samaritan and put it in my car with the intention of dropping it off at the local telephone exchange. Unfortunately we got hammered one night at the pub and driving back along the highway at about $140km/h decided to lob about 5kg of pure payphone guts at the green highway sign. It was a tag team effort. One leaning out the window while another held him. Scored a bullseye and the sign had a severe deformity for years after. I've since grown up somewhat but it was worth a laugh at the time!!

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tubeshooter Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 5:08pm

They were a bit of a pain in the arse if you had to make a lengthy long distance call , which by definition at the time could have been three suburbs away. $10 bucks in 20/10c coins were a bugger to carry and feeding them in one by one kept you pretty busy if you had to write stuff down while talking. All this while the ever growing queue in line waiting for you to hang the fark up are slowly becoming noticeably aggravated .
You were seriously better off with a trained pigeon.

udo's picture
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udo Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 5:50pm

Supa and Megzee remember the free phones around the Gatta...i think they used to drop a glue covered coin in the slot and lock it up....there be a queue 30 plus long outside the Phones
Free STD calls.
in the 90s they did this
https://news.hitb.org/content/hacking-payphones-telstra-style

Supafreak's picture
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Supafreak Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 8:20pm

@udo , I don’t recall that but do remember yelling down the earpiece or slamming the phone button really hard, sometimes worked sometimes didn’t .

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Supafreak Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 8:45pm

I just saw some comments on facey about these free phones and someone commented that drug dealers would take advantage of this . Maybe it’s a police trap ! It is weird though that telsta is doing something for free when their customer service has had its fair share of criticism.

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eat-your-vegies Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 10:34pm

There’s always been free STDs in the Gatta lol

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jezza64 Tuesday, 3 Aug 2021 at 10:37pm

Behind the facade of altruism there will be some hard economic decision making…… ie it’s probably cheaper to make the calls free than to pay someone to collect the coins and repair vandalism caused to get said coins. (worked for the Big T for 31+ years)