Thank you all for your patience and we apologize for all the inconvenience. We are happy to announce that we will be officially re-opening on the 3rd of February 2021 and will be operating under COVID restrictions. One of those restrictions will be a limit to the number of bookings / visitors allowed at any one time.
We welcome any visitors or bookings, so please contact us if you wish to make a booking or if you have any questions.
Throughout these years many donations of memorabilia have been given to the society for safe keeping so that future generations can be sufficiently informed about the history of this vital utility in the development of the state of Queensland.
PRESIDENT | Don Wellings |
VICE PRESIDENT | John Rostron |
SECRETARY | Mike Pitman |
TREASURER | Ronald Tew |
COMMITTEE MEMBERS | Geoff Battersby Leo Maloney |
This Uni/Final selector rack was part of the City North Exchange, a 12,000 line exchange servicing Sydney’s inner-city area from 1921 to 1974. In 1974 the customers were cutover to the new Pitt Exchange nearby.
The equipment is the same as what was installed in Australia’s first public automatic telephone exchange installed at Geelong, Victoria in 1912. After it was decommissioned, the “Keith” was packed into a wooden crate and shipped to Nambour Telephone Exchange in Qld. After sitting in Nambour for many years it was discovered by a member of the Brisbane Museum and shipped to Albion, where it sat in a shed for a number of years.
Restoration work began in 2017 with some switches loaned from the Sydney museum, and after two years of volunteer effort, a few adjustments, and some 'oil and dag' it has been brought back to life.
Photo on the left are:
John Campling, and on the right is Leo Molonie.
So far we have used it for nursing homes, a public library's heritage group, Salvation Army Women's League and the Scouts JOTA. We have more visits booked.