Multifone telephone used by William McMahon
Listen for dial tone.
This telephone was used by Australia’s 20th prime minister William ‘Billy’ McMahon from 10 March 1971 to 5 December 1972. Nowadays we wouldn’t think much of it, but Billy McMahon was notorious for ringing business leaders, journalists, public servants and staff at all hours for advice and assistance. Imagine what he could have achieved with a mobile.

This telephone was donated to the museum by Neil Baker.

The user of the telephone Prime Minister Billy McMahon, Mrs Sonia McMahon and Prince Philip during the Duke of Edinburgh’s tour for the Golden Jubilee celebration for the Royal Australian Air Force, 1971 Credit: Australian News and Information Bureau NAA A1200, L95905
This Multifone telephone has the rotary dial mechanism and curly-corded handset familiar to telephone users of the 1960s–70s . But it has an added feature – direct dial buttons. Before telephones like this one, telephone numbers had to be manually dialled with the specific string of numbers you required. Multifones had a set of programmable buttons that let the caller press one button and place a call directly to the person they required – an exciting development in telephony.

Credit: Courtesy Neil Baker/Museum of Australian Democracy Collection
The Telecom employees in their busy office at Old Parliament House in 1987 - L to R - Scott Cadden, Neil Baker (the donor of the telephone), Jeff Wilke and Milton Rickerby.
And when those offices or individuals called you, the buttons would light up so you could see who was on the line. The buttons on McMahon’s telephone are linked to specific six-digit telephone numbers in Parliament House including switchboard operators, ministers, assistant secretaries, and press and private secretaries.
Visual description
This telephone has a rectangular sloped unit with a rotary dial to the left and 18 square direct dial buttons with adjacent labels. 16 buttons have red covers and two have green. Below the buttons there is a plate with the name ‘Multifone’. The handset sits in a metal cradle on the left-hand side of the unit and is attached with a curly rubber cord.
The telephone is bulky and heavy measuring 13 cm high, 38 cm wide and 24 cm deep. It is made of plastic – the handset and main body are light grey and the plate containing the rotary dial and buttons is cream.

Switchboard operators handled hundreds of local, national and international calls for politicians and staff at Parliament House, 1988
Credit: Photograph by Robert McFarlane - Department of the House of Representatives
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How did this telephone end up in the Museum’s collection?
This telephone was donated to the museum by Neil Baker, a Telecom Technician who worked at Parliament House from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. During this time, he collected telephones and other telecommunications equipment that he was asked to remove or replace. An avid and dedicated collector, Neil saw treasure in humble office technology and passionately believed in its future value.
Neil donated a large part of his collection to the museum. The office telephones, exchanges, intercoms and public telephones provide a significant survey of the telecommunications used in Parliament House from the 1950s to the 1980s and its administrative and communication functions.
How do you operate a rotary dial telephone?
You pick up the handset and hold the end closest to the cord to your mouth and the other end to your ear. You wait until you hear a dial tone and then dial the number by placing your fingertip into the opening for the relevant number and drawing the disc in a clockwise direction until stopped by a metal fitting. You then withdraw your finger and let the disc return to its original position. You repeat this action for each of the remaining numbers. Once finished dialling you would either hear a ringing or a busy tone.