000 emergency
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000 (mostly known as triple-O) is the primary national emergency number in Australia. It is operated by Telstra Corporation Limited as a condition of its telecommunications licence, and is intended only for use in life-threatening emergencies. Other emergency numbers in Australia are 112 for GSM mobile phones—which is redirected to a 000 operator—and 106 for textphones.
Prior to 1961, Australia had no national number for emergency services; the police, fire and ambulance services possessed many phone numbers, one for each local unit. In 1961, the office of the Postmaster General (PMG) introduced the 000 number in major population centres and near the end of the 1980s extended its coverage to nationwide. The number 000 was chosen for several reasons, one of which was that zero was closest to the finger stall on Australian pulse dial phones, so it was easy to dial in darkness.
911 was considered as a potential emergency number, though existing numbering arrangements make this unfeasible due to users in Sydney and Melbourne being assigned numbers beginning with 911.
As the Australian Communications and Media Authority does not regard State Emergency Service (SES) calls as life-threatening, the 000 number does not allow them to be contacted. Asking for the SES prompts a recorded announcement explaining how to proceed.
[edit] 2003 problems
On December 3 2003, floods and storms in Melbourne caused a large influx of 000 calls, preventing some calls from being answered immediately. This caused some users interviewed by authorities to believe that they had dialled the wrong number. A subsequent investigation recommended that a recorded announcement be set up to assure callers that their calls were being connected. Now, in place of a dial tone, a recorded message that says "You have dialled emergency triple-zero. Your call is being connected." is played.[1].
