By Derek Schlennstedt
They hover by doorways in hospitals and retirement villages. They lurk on shady street corners, vacant and ignored. They gaze forlorn over coastal foreshores, reflecting the smeary glint of yesteryear. Unlike flavoured milk or AM radio, these cumbersome icons are not yet being mythologised.
It’s official, public telephone boxes are on the way out. The number of these coin-fed relics has more than halved in the past decade, and though some have been reassigned as Wi-Fi hotspots – meaning they now operate like a very low-budget Tardis – many have been forgotten. An out-dated technology in the slow lane, fading fast, soon to be out of sight.
It wasn’t always like this, and in fact in November 1979 Clematis had its phone box re-instated. The conduit for communication was removed due to widening works on Wellington Road.
In its first and third edition, the Emerald Trader highlighted the importance of the reopening event.
Lynne Dickson, a resident of Clematis who attended the opening and made the very first call from the phone recalled the months that led up to the grand reopening.
“One morning in 1979, I arrived at the Clematis General Store to collect our mail and discovered that Ernie Jones was looking rather flummoxed,” said Ms Dickson.
“I soon discovered the source of his outrage. He had received a visit from representatives of Telecom telling him that the Clematis Phone Box was going to be removed.
“Younger readers will incredulously find it quite unbelievable that in the dark ages of the 1970’s and before, there were no mobile phones, and so the injustice of the phone box removal was of supreme importance.”
Soon after, a Clematis Residents’ Association was convened who would lobby the government to reconsider the removal of the phone box.
Though, according to Ms Dickson “before we received responses to our poignant and heart-felt appeals, some workmen arrived one morning, removed the vital working parts of the phone box, then tied a rope around the wooden box, attached the other end to their Telecom truck and wrenched the box from its concrete base.”
Defeated and denied by the Government and Telecoms agency, Ms Dickson contacted the only people who would listen. Channel 0 news, hosted by the capable Peter Couchman.
Rather than send a menial letter, Ms Dickson chose a more elegant form of communication.
“Because I often find myself thinking and speaking in rhyming couplets, I decided to write the details in the form of a poem. As I did so, I was amazed at how easily the words flowed to recap the painful events which had led to such a drastic form of action,” she said.
“We would have liked to ring you from the phone box near the store, but some workmen came and took it, so it’s not there anymore,” the second stanza of the poem stated.
“The Powers-that-be at Telecom, they said “It doesn’t pay!” So they tied a rope around it, and they dragged our box away.”
So went the poignant poem from Lynn Dickson and it wasn’t long before it caught Peter Couchman’s attention.
On 22 November the Trader reported the grand reopening of the Clematis phone box.
According to the article, the return of the phone box received a royal welcome, with Mr Marshall Baillieu holding a champagne opening.
“Motorists and passengers travelling along the Main Road at Clematis Friday morning stared in amazement at the festive sight of the Clematis telephone box bedecked with streamers, bells and bunting. There was even a vase of flowers adorning the inside of the booth,” stated the Emerald Trader.
“Marshall Baillieu cut the ribbon and declared the phone box open and ready for business, and Mrs Lynn Dickson made the inaugural call.”
While there have been some monumental changes within technology, a public phone booth still stands at the corner of Belgrave Gembrook Road in Clematis and Telstra remains proud of that.
“Whether it’s Telstra payphones right through to Australia’s largest and fastest mobile network, Telstra is proud to be a big part of the Yarra Ranges. Times might have changed since 1979 but our Telstra payphones still serve an important role alongside more modern communications,” said Loretta Willaton, Regional General Manager for Telstra.
Today, the smartphone is an extension of our person. An emotional life raft filled with a jukebox, dating agency, GPS – it’s anything but an actual phone. This along with the introduction of NBN and a 4G network in Clematis has continued to erode the phone booths’ impression on society.
We don’t talk anymore, we text. We don’t make the effort to ring anyone because we don’t have to. But in 1979, a small phone box in Clematis offered a few cubic meters of privacy and potential and that was worth fighting for.
As Ms Dickson so right said in 1979, after the phone was reopened, ‘it was a great day for Clematis’.
“It’s a great day for Clematis. Our phone box has returned.”
“We can’t begin to tell you how our hearts have ached and yearned.”
“To have it brought back to us. Now our dreams have all come true.”
“So to Marshall, Pete and Telecom, we say a big thank you!”
