MARBURG has one of a thousand rejuvenated Telstra phone booths that are equipped to be used for free in an emergency.

The phone box with its red and orange graphics is designed to look like an inflatable lifeboat is inside it and is known as a ‘rescue box’.

Marburg’s rescue box is on the corner of Edmond and Green Streets.

The boxes have back up power and free calls and the wifi can be used when inside the box.

Once known colloquially as ‘tickie boxes’ making a phone call meant inserting as many coins needed to keep the conversation going.

When mobile phones were invented, landlines and rotatory telephones slowly became redundant.

Then the age of instant connection had Telstra change some of its phone booths by turning them into wifi connective places.

The communications giant has pivoted again and this time it’s decided we can have it all for free … within reason.

The free wifi has potential for emergency online connection where the user has no data of their own.

Further from home, some of Telstra’s phone boxes used during significant events and catastrophes could be added to the National Trust Heritage Register.

A campaign is underway to have one added in Narooma.

When powerlines and mobile phone towers on the NSW south coast were destroyed during the 2020 Black Summer bushfires, the phone box became the only way residents could let family and friends know they were okay.

The service has now been made free to provide a free vital community lifeline, particularly for vulnerable individuals.