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Postmaster-general's Department




The Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) was created at Federation in 1901 to control all postal (and later, telecommunications) services within Australia . In mid- 1975 it was disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission (trading as Telecom Australia ) and the Australian Postal Commission (trading as Australia Post ).


EARLY HISTORY (TELEPHONY)

The earliest telephone Exchange s in Australia date back to 1880.
All phone calls were manually switched by human Operator s.
The Melbourne exchange opened with just 44 customers.

The first automatic exchange did not open until 1912, featuring
Electromechanical switching equipment.
So-called " Cross-bar " systems
started appearing in 1960. Electronic switching begain in the
late 1970s.


Reference

"Switching Tomorrow", issued by the HQ Information and Publicity
office of Telecom Australia, 1979.