APO Type 137AWH

These little phones followed the British Ericsson into the Australian inventory, but were only used in auto or CB styles where a large battery case was not needed. They used similar parts to the British Ericsson, which reduced maintenance costs and parts inventory. Like the British Ericsson, they were well built and reliable. Ericssons did build a magneto version but it was not used in Australia.

This is the phone that started me off in collecting. In the early 1970s I was a young clerk in the PMG Department (that's the PostMaster General's Dept, by this time renamed the Australian Post Office). We had just released the new plastic wall phone, the 891 series, and we were taking bets on which technician would be the first one in the district to install one. They were still on very restricted supply and we had been told to only use them for essential maintenance. The technician who got the first one in installed it to replace his mother's phone. I joked to him about it later, and he sent me the old phone - this one. It was indeed broken - the solder holding the bell clapper to the rocker had snapped. This was its first fault in forty years of service. Thanks Doug.

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