TELEPHONE EXCHANGE

Aa told by Margaret Johnson

“Yes I worked on the exchange and loved it. It was very interesting because not only did we have to answer and get calls we would have to inform farmers when there was a bushfire in their area.

People would ring up and say get me the baker the railway or whatever and when I first started this was taking a while to learn but we did have a print out of the various town subscribers to rely on.

Businesses would ring and ask us to get Elder or some other business in Perth. well for a newbie that was really a problem especially as my first day alone when these businesses to do this as it was the busiest day of the week.
 

GNOWANGERUP POST OFFICE
WITH TELEPHONE EXCHANGE OF THE LEFT SIDE                  #1
 

ENTRANCE TO TELEPHONE EXCHANGE            #2
 

Farmers would be ringing to place orders for their shopping to save time when they came onto town.

Then of course the party lines we had to learn the morse codes that were used . Our biggest party line was 8 subscribers. We had outlying exchanges that relied on us to get the calls they needed, namely Borden, Ongerup, Toompup and Needilup.

How times have changed. Eventually the exchange became so busy that an extra girl was added so that we would have two on in the mornings .

Unfortunately in those days the Government did not employ married women on permanent although we did have one for part time.

The post master lived on the premises and did the night shift we would put the bell on to wake if there was a call.

Later with a new PM there was a young man who did the postal delivery he would do the night shift with a bed made up”.
 

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References:                 Article:      Margaret Johnson

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Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2023