By Ray Peace
A step back in time – back to the days when the nearest phone was down the street, not in your pocket, and you paid for calls with small change, not credit cards. Thanks to the work of the Knox Woodworkers, and assistance from Knox City Council, you can step back into a world where you really dialled a number, pushing mechanical buttons, and having your call placed by an operator at the local exchange, not satellites and the internet.
Knox Historical Society had the old phone box in the grounds for some years, but hidden away and in very poor condition. Finally, in 2022, the KHS committee decided to do something about it. The dilapidated phone booth had no glass, the paint was peeling, and the bare timber was exposed to weathering.
The sad-looking telephone box was hauled off on a trailer by the ‘Woodies’, who had their work cut out restoring it. But restore it they did. Knox City Council provided a concrete platform as a mounting. A few months later, the restored phone box made a grand return, painted gleaming red with a silver roof, and graffiti-proof paint (supposedly) on the inside.
Now the telephone box stands in the dappled shade of the gardens at ‘Ambleside’ museum, at 3 Olivebank Rd, Ferntree Gully, open Sundays 1-4 pm, and kids can see for themselves how their grandparents made phone calls. And no, it isn’t bigger on the inside than on the outside, and Superman doesn’t duck inside to change his clothes either.
