Telstra phone booth's bizarre placement called out
An old Telstra phone booth has raised eyebrows over its bizarre roadside placement.
The booth, which appeared in a post on Reddit this week, is located on Castle Hill's Victoria Avenue, in Sydney's northwest.
"One of Sydney's few remaining phone booths is in the middle of a cycle path. Handy if you need to call an ambulance after you collide with it," the poster joked.
"Dual use as brake check," another user said.
The phone booth does in fact block one half of the shared cycle and pedestrian path which sits along the busy road.
Though given how wide the pathway is, you would be able to easily manoeuvre the Telstra phone booth. Several people in the comments said the path was solely a foot path, not a cycle path, despite markings indicating otherwise.
Telstra sets the record straight
In a statement to Yahoo News Australia, a Telstra spokesperson confirmed the phone booth predates the path.
Telstra also said the company has not received any requests from the local council to remove the phone booth from the area.
"Our public phone on Victoria Avenue has been serving people for many years and was installed before any pathway," a Telstra spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo News Australia.
"Our phones can be relocated on request and we’re happy to discuss this with the local council.
"In the meantime, riders are welcome to pull up, have a rest and a chat. All local and national calls to standard fixed line numbers and calls to standard Australian mobiles on Telstra’s public payphones are now free."
The Hills Shire Council has been contacted by Yahoo.
Internet investigator digs deeper
Using Google Earth Pro, one person in the comments of the Reddit threat determined the phone booth had potentially been installed in 2006 or 2007.
They said the orange top of the phone booth appears on Google Earth in March 2007.
"At the time, there was no footpath at all along that side of Victoria Avenue, Castle Hill," they said.
"Jumping along a few years the current footpath appears in the December 2012 photography, with the phone booth still exactly where it was and is to this day."
A few people on the Reddit post pointed out Telstra has thousands of phone booths across Australia and one person pointed out they are valuable to vulnerable people.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
