25 August 2005

Images of Canberra - Vandalised phone booth in Banks

| johnboy
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bohemianphilosophy has sent in this picture of a phone booth in Pockett Ave in Banks. The combination of strength and violence is a little disturbing.

Broken phone booth in Banks

Got an image in, or of Canberra you want to share with the world? Email it to johnboy@the-riotact.com

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At least they didn’t nick the light bulb; there’s responsibility for ya.

> I hope that the photographer wasn’t the one throwing the rock!

That would account for the blurriness.

bohemianphilosophy10:38 am 26 Aug 05

FB: It must be annoying to see that every other day. Well, I am. I know for sure that the booth will be the first destination if I need help and mine at home is not working.

Haha, I’m not sure if they are doing something funny there… but yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people using it too.

Bohemian, I have a phone booth right out the front of my place in the inner north & it gets the same treatment. It gets trashed every few months and Telstra come and fix it within a day or a two. It doesn’t have glass, it’s got Perspex but they still have to replace that regularly when it gets spray painted. I even came home one afternoon to find the whole thing completely ripped out and lying across my driveway. Telstra came out and had it up & running a few hours later.

I keep hoping that it doesn’t get repaired each time as there is a constant stream of bogans using it day & night. I often wonder if they are casing the joint.

telstra are funded under teh USO to provide public phone booths. However, they no longer manufacture them and have to reuse existing ones which are withdrawn from service due to lack of profitability or repeated vandalism.

under current regulations, anyone can install their own public phone, or start their own telco. if you cant get broadband in whoop whoop, start your own telco. See the bendigo community telco as an example.

i find it ironic that telstra are pilloried when its clear that the very community this phone services repeatedly destroy it.

when will this endless suckling at the governmental teat cease.

bohemianphilosophy9:14 am 26 Aug 05

Thanks to Johnboy for posting this up.

Heh, Evictor, I won’t dig my own grave….

Yes, phone booth is rather rare these days and I think the one there is perhaps the only one (or two, not sure) along Pockett Ave.

Okay, the gist is, in the last couple of years that we’ve been here, this poor old phone booth went through a lot, from its cord being disconnected to being graffiti-ed and being charred by something (either fire or with some very very black and horrible substance). Telestra persisted and it was duly fixed everytime but within the space of a few months, it was being trashed again.

Thumper & Bulldog, yes, I have same question too. But I’m pretty impressed as the shattered glasses were removed and a new one was replaced the next day. For all the vandalism, they responded pretty quickly and it was fixed within a day or two. Oh the irony in comparison to other services ….

I’m wondering if other suburbs are facing similar problem …..

I hope that the photographer wasn’t the one throwing the rock!

I’m tipping an orange canon was responsible for the damage shown. At least it sonds more adventurous than a thrown rock…

Good point Thumper, I was thinking the same thing.

Mind you, Dr Who has been known to enter the wrong Tardis – with catastrophic results.

…and getting rarer, from the look of it.

Public telephones are rare these days.

Through both sides with the same profile?

Vic Bitterman7:46 pm 25 Aug 05

Not really. It’s safety glass like the same stuff used on the sde windows of a car. A rock pitched hard enough will do damage like this.

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