Australian Post Office
Telephone No. 31
Automatic, Wall (Geelong)

Black painted wooden cased wall telephone first used on Australia's first automatic telephone exchange at Geelong, Victoria in 1912. This was a Strowger Automatic telephone apparatus, manufactured by the Automatic Electric Company, Chicago, USA.

This phone was also made by the Automatic Electric Company and known by many as the Geelong type.

These phones were fitted with a Mercedes dial and had a very basic circuit.  There is no induction coil in the phone, and the receiver does not contain permanent magnets. The transmitter and receiver are connected in series but this gave rather poor results in use.  Eventually an Instruction was issued that they not be used more than a mile from the telephone exchange.  The dial was slightly smaller than the British dial, although some phones were later modified to take the larger model. 

Note the "A" stamping in the end of the switch hook. This was seen on earlier phones.  It did not, as is widely supposed, stand for "Australia", but for Automatic Electric.  It is seen on early U.S. phones as well.

The dial has one "off-normal" spring set on the dial which short circuits both the transmitter and receiver.

Telephone No. 31 - Basic Automatic telephone.

Telephone No. 33 - As No. 31 but fitted with a control lock. The problem of unauthorised calls was apparently a very early one.

Telephone No. 35 - As No. 31 but modified for party line working.

Taken from Bob's Old Phones

Diagrams

See also the Telephone No. 35

 

Circuit Diagram

Last revised May 31, 2025

FM2