Telephonists to connect again

FORMER switchboard operators from the office of the Postmaster-General, or PMG, in Ballarat will soon return to the region for the first mass reunion in a decade.

While about half a dozen ex-employees still meet regularly, the meetup is set to attract attendees from across Victoria and even New Zealand.

One of the organisers Joan Duffy was part of the gathering 10 years ago, which was the telephonists’ first major reunion, and saw about 60 people attend.

She said she’s excited to reminisce again with her former colleagues.

“It’ll be good to see the people we haven’t kept in contact with and to see the directions they went in,” she said.

“I’m also looking forward to hearing about what happened in those later years after I left because I know a lot did happen.”

Ms Duffy said being a telephonist, or switchboard operator, was a vital career during its heyday.

“Those were the days where say, if someone from the hospital wanted to speak to someone from another hospital, we would pick up the phone,” she said.

“They couldn’t ring them unless it was through one of us.

“You’d get the number they wanted to ring, answered with a plug, and put in the other cord connecting to them, then dial that number and put them through.”

PMG Ballarat, which was the first regional telephone exchange in Victoria, operated for nearly a century at the Old Post Office’s upstairs space until 1982 when nearly 50 staff were moved to Doveton Street before closing in 1994.

Since advertising the event, more than 100 photographs and items of memorabilia have been collected for the event.

Having worked at PMG Ballarat from 1964 to 1968, Ms Duffy said she has many fond memories to look back on.

“We did things like play basketball and football against other telephonists from around Victoria,” she said.

“We’d also have floats in the Begonia Festival which I was in for three years. For the first one, they had this huge big old-fashioned telephone, a big love heart and bride and groom theme.

“They were fantastic days. I remember it was a fair hike upstirs and two rooms with huge switchboards. It was always extremely busy, and we were side by side by side by side.”

The reunion will take place from 12pm on Saturday 18 November at the Robin Hood Hotel and for enquiries, call 0417 503 076, 0412 872 767 or 0439 038 187.