Australia’s payphones are an iconic part of the national landscape, even if they’re not as important as they once used to be. However, they’re having a resurgence of late, in part thanks to a new national pastime—the sport of Payphone Tag!
Created by [Alex Allchin], the game is simple. To play, you first sign up on the website and get your emoji and 5-digit PIN. You then go out and find a payphone, dial the Payphone Tag number, and enter your PIN when prompted. This lets you “capture” the phone, raising your score in the game. If a phone is already captured, no matter—just head out there, dial the number, and key in your own PIN to steal it. You can also push your score even higher by capturing three payphones in a triangle on the map to get bonus points.
It’s a fun geospatial game that’s also free to play, because Telstra made payphone calls free back in 2022. It might cost you a bit to get out to some phones, but there are plenty you can reach with the aid of free public transport at the moment, anyway. Protip—at the time of writing, there are a ton of easy captures to be had on Kangaroo Island. It might just cost you a pretty penny to get out there. Have at it!
We’d love to see some stats from Telstra as to whether this is making a dent in overall payphone usage rates. In any case, there were 800 players in the last 7 days and a full 36,640 captures so far, so a lot is happening out there. We fully expect to see this concept spread to other nations in turn, though it might be less attractive in places where you still need to dig out a coin to make a call.
We’ve featured a few payphone hacks over the years. If you’re doing something rad with these telecommunication devices of yesteryear, we’d love to hear about it on the tipsline.
Couple years ago, I was in Cook, SA. There is a payphone there and, yes, it was displaying a message that calls to anywhere in AUS were free…because Australia.
Cook, FYI, is in the middle of the longest straight stretch of railway track in the world.
Sounds like one of the most evil forms of socialism devised by humans! Next thing you know you’ll be able to get a cut sewn shut without the hospital owning your house! Ayn Rand tried to warn us!
You’ll be able to get the cut sewn shut, it will just take five days before they can see you. During that wait time it will probably get infected and cause much bigger problems.
No worries, you won’t own your own house. You can’t afford one because taxes are too high to pay for public healthcare.
Better to just sew it shut yourself (why no hacks on HAD for this?).
Happens all the time in socialized countries.
Not the experience i have had.
It’s pretty good here, so good, that yo actually tell people how good would just be flaunting it. Kind of like the weather, back in Montreal….
If you need a cut sewn, you go to emergency services. No appointment needed.
I am an American, but I live in Germany. Everybody has health insurance. It is required by law. You and your employer each pay a part of the insurance premium each month. If you are not employed, the unemployment office pays for it.
Emergency services are available at all hospitals and some clinics. You might have to wait to get your cut sewn until the guy having the heart attack has been stabilized, but that happens everywhere.
I broke my leg last November. I was out in a field out of town. An ambulance with a couple of guys came and picked me up. Since I was at the bottom of a muddy hill, the fire department sent a couple of guys to help haul me back up to the road.
The ambulance took me to the hospital, where they first checked to see how bad off I was. I wasn’t in any pain and wasn’t hypothermic (it was cold out, but I had been dressed warm,) so the doctors finished with a more critical patient while the nurses did some preliminary tests (blood samples and minor stuff.)
The doctor checked me over, had some MRI pictures of the break made, and went over the test results. Simple break of both bones just above the ankle, but would require screws, metal plates, wires, and a cast to heal properly. The blood tests said I had a catastrophically low potassium level – they couldn’t operate that evening, so that was put off until Monday. That was Saturday evening. They kept me in the hospital until Monday, giving me IVs to build up the potassium level.
They operated on Monday, then kept me in the hospital for a couple of days under observation. During that time, a physical therapist came and taught me how to walk and climb stairs while using crutches – most specifically, how to do so without putting any load on my foot, since one of the screws had to go in at an odd angle. Any load on it would bend it (making it a bitch to get back out) or break it (requiring another operation to replace.)
They sent me home with crutches (to keep) and a wheelchair on loan until my leg was healed.
I was officially on sick leave for the next month and a half. During that time, my health insurance paid my salary. My employer was required to keep me on the payroll – you cannot be fired for being on sick leave.
Total out of pocket cost:
Less than 200 Euros. Most of that was for various small fees of around 10 Euros each that the insurance doesn’t cover.
I saw no bill for the hospital costs. The health insurance sent me a copy of the bill for the ambulance for about 600 Euros, but marked “paid in full” by the insurance.
My insurance paid for physical therapy after the cast came off to restore full motion and use to the leg where the muscles had stiffened from disuse over nearly 2 months.
My insurance is nothing special. It’s from one of several nationwide companies. Mine is, in fact, held in lowest regard. It is the one folks who work in factories and other low paying jobs usually get. It is a bit cheaper, which is an advantage for the employer and the low income employees. I could have switched to a better (slightly more expensive) insurer, but I’ve never felt the need.
My wife and I own our own house, as do our neighbors. We have a car, and had two for as long as I had to drive to work everyday. I mostly work from home these days, so one car is fine.
Hospital and ambulance bills paid, physical therapy paid, no concerns about being fired while incapacitated, income covered while I couldn’t work.
Do you know that there is no concept of “medical bankruptcy” in Germany. People don’t go broke due to medical problems often enough for it to be a thing.
But, hey. Keep spreading the FUD. The only people you hurt are yourself, your family, and your fellow citizens. The rest of the world will keep shaking their heads at a country that can’t even keep its citizens out of the poor house.
The US has the best government money can buy and our medical system is a great example of that.
The Bill To Permanently Fix Health Care For All
by Karl Denninger
2017-03-30
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231949
Just one example from his long list that shows how insanely corrupt our system is. ** emphasis is mine:
“All anti-trust and consumer protection laws shall be enforced against all medically-related firms and any claimed exemptions for health-related firms in relationship to same are hereby deemed void; for private actions all such violations proved up in court are entitled to treble damages plus a $50,000 statutory civil penalty per impacted person. If the government won’t bring these charges and we know they won’t since despite not one but two US Supreme Court cases [links] here and here making clear anti-trust laws apply to medical providers of all stripes not one charge has been leveled against any of the medical firms…”
There is far too much in our incredibly complex system of graft, legal or simply just ignored, for an understandably inadequately attentive and easily propagandized because they’ve intentionally never been taught the LEARNED skill of critical thought and analysis voting population to vote its way out of this. Violence won’t work either for the same reason: they don’t know how to even attempt to vote their way out of this, so:
“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it’s a way of thinking, a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re up for grabs for the next charlatan—political or religious—who comes ambling along.” – Carl Sagan
Lol, do Americans actually believe this dribble to make their “we will bankrupt you” medical system seem better?
I’m Australian.
Once upon a time a time late at night doing something silly I cracked my head open. Woke up concussed in the back of an ambulance. Got some x-rays, got my head sewn up and got sent on my way.
Total cost: $0. Wasn’t even any paperwork to fill out.
So yeah, stick your “best medical system in the world” where the sun doesn’t shine.
It’s a troll, don’t feed them. There’s been some other unpleasant comments pop up in the past few days, would not be surprised if it’s the same putz.
Super Glue. Cyanoacrylate. It must be the liquid type that runs all over everywhere, NOT the gel. After all emergency wound closure is why the stuff was invented in the first place. It doesn’t sting, or burn, or cause any discomfort at all not even a little bit. It just works.
A few years ago I did somethin’ real stupid working at the lathe, and came within a whisker of de-gloving about two-thirds of my left pinky finger. Glued the big dangling flap of skin back in place and kept it wrapped/splinted tightly for about a week and everything grew back together perfectly fine. There was some minor nerve damage for a while (tingling when touched) but that also solved itself over time. There is a scar but you’d have to know what to look for to notice it.
It probably helped immensely that the long stringy swarf-tangle that snagged my finger had just seconds before been glowing white-hot as it squirted off the workpiece, which I assume means it sterilized everything as it cut through the finger-meat. I hate turning 1045 steel. Nasty stuff.
Note that some people can have strong reactions to cyanoacrylate – I honestly recommend finding this out when you’re well, rather than when trying to do emergency surgery on yourself.
I’ve used it to close a couple of annoying cuts over the years, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea in general, but if you’ve never handled the stuff before, maybe check if you’re one of the minority who’s sensitive before getting it internal
If you say so. I’ve know people who left the US for Canada because with health conditions staying would have bankrupted them. I didn’t keep touch but I do know that they never came back.
i’ve had good luck using superglue for this on me, my wife, and my dogs. the dogs always have some flapping new injury i gotta glue together!
I currently live in Germany let me tell you about the “free healthcare”
Cut into my nuts with ZERO anesthetic topical or otherwise.
Tried to give my wife a colonoscopy also without anesthetic
A drug I have been on for 20 years in the US, had to be approved by the German Gov resulting in 3 months of painful complications. Its a 10 min convo with a Doc in the US and covered by insurance.
The “free” healthcare is civil war amputation quality.
Well, no. It ain’t free. If you work, you pay insurance. Check the pay statement from your employer, or ask your accountant if you are self employed. If you are unemployed, the unemployment office pays.
Umm. Where did you find a barbarian to slice on your nuts like that? I’ve always been gibe anesthetic when needed.
I’ve had several colonoscopies – always with anesthetic. I get endoscopy done once a year to check the state of my esophagus. It is narrow and gets narrower over time. Periodically, the doctor has to widen it. Endoscopy is always done under propfol.
There’s a process to get any drug or treatment on the list. Once it is there, it can be used on anyone. You seem to have been the first to need that particular drug, presumably because they use something else in Germany.
Sorry. No it is not.
I’ve had broken leg taken care of in November. Quality care, no complications. Pain medicines as needed. Out of pocket costs amounted to less than 200 Euros in administrative fees. Ambulance, hospital, physical therapy all covered by insurance. They also paid my salary while I was laid up, and my employer wasn’t allowed to fire me for being on sick leave for a month and a half.
I’ve just had caratact surgery. 100% covered by insurance, except that I opted for better quality lenses and had to pay the difference between standard lenses (covered 100% by insurance) and the cost of the better ones. The difference between the different lenses is that the more expensive ones don’t have as much of a halo effect in certain conditions as the standard lenses do. I paid about 1600 Euros for the lenses. The rest was covered by the insurance – operations, checkup appointments, medicines, bandaging materials.. Oh, and of course, sick leave for recovery time after the two operations.
I don’t know where you live, but your experience with German medical care and insurance doesn’t match the reality I know.
He probably wandered in the local butcher thinking it was a hospital.
Or maybe he tried to speak German and told them to absolutely not use anaesthetics without knowing it?
Or maybe he sees it as his calling to call anything not extreme-capitalist ‘socialist’ and then needs to attack it in any way possible, including by making up stories?
I am not going to bother with your multiple attempts to attack other than to say, NO I am NOT the first to be on this drug. The first doctor I went to couldn’t even prescribe it. I had to literally find a doctor that COULD, then go through that BS.
Also yes, a scalpel straight into my sack. No pills, no lidocaine, nothing. Still have the inch long scar to prove it.
I wish it didn’t happen but it did. AT a major hospital. Yes my wife was able to get sedation, but it was not the default and they tried not to do it.
Wow, a broken leg and cataracts. So complex.
It’s weird when people need to lie to make their point. Surely they recognise that it has merely weakened their actual position?
Still, i have to have some grim respect for the ability of your homeland to keep the elderly out of hospitals. Mostly those over 79.
I currently live in the USA and I can’t afford any of those things, so you have it better than me. I haven’t been to a doctor in 20 years and will probably die of something preventable that I’m unaware of.
So are they still payphones?!
Right? But if you can’t tell who is paying for something, it’s probably you.
In this case you pay for it through your taxes, and by consuming the digital ads they display on the outside of the booth.
But “tax-and-advertising-subsidized-phone” doesn’t have the same “ring” to it.
Not Australian I see. Telstra doesn’t receive tax dollars, it’s a private company, and public phones don’t display advertising.
No, this is because Telstra’s license requires them to maintain the public phone network, but clearing the small number of coins that they take in in the age of ubiquitous mobile phones costs more than it makes, as does repairing damage if someone tries to rob them. The network is already there, it doesn’t need major investment.
If anyone can be said to be paying it’s Telstra customers for its other services, but the cost is minimal.
“Telstra doesn’t receive tax dollars”
Oh really…
Took me two seconds to search on that interweb thingy.
“Key areas of taxpayer funding for Telstra include:
Universal Service Obligation (USO): Telstra receives over $230 million annually from the government (taxpayers) and other telcos to maintain landlines and payphones, particularly in regional and remote areas, under a contract that runs until 2032.”
Wake the heck up sheeple!
Oh lord. A tiny bit more googling and you would have discovered that the Universal Services Obligation contract (of which $40 million is for “landlines and pay phones”) is funded by the Telecommunications Industry Levy. In other words Telcos pay for it, not ordinary taxpayers.
You want to say “that’s still taxes” fine, be my guest.
Surely not all Americans are like you. There are other news channels beside Fox.
Hell, just ask one of us Aussies and be enlightened (though I see you are fairly resistant to that).
@Naxes: Corporations don’t pay taxes out of profits; they increase the price of their goods/services. So, yes, it’s a tax on the consumer (you).
Back in the late 1990s we had a fun game/prank to play. Behind our school there was a transformer building and there was a somewhat sheltered spot where
peopledrunks would often defecate in public. We would take a stick, smear it with poo and go to the nearest payphone, then we would smear still fresh feces on a speaker and hang it back. It was probably somewhat antisocial but we were just 10, maybe 11 years old at the time so it was fun.People also used to do that with shaving cream, and not just on payphones.
This game is recreating the ex-Google augmented reality game Ingress, with having to go to specific locations to capture them and then generating triangles based on captures.
And this is an implementation that would presumably be a -little- harder to cheat at, which is why I gave up Ingress. Great game idea. Just too many bad actors to feel like it was worth the time to play at the high level.
Adelaide, again?
Weren’t we just there? https://hackaday.com/2026/04/12/passive-radar-explained/
Hopping place.
Some of those phones are pretty grotty, but.
So take your nitrile gloves.
One of the above comments seems to indicate why…
Telstra have free phone calls fro all of them as the phone boxes aren’t about making phone calls.
They have many of these boxes in prime advertising spots, and make all the money from that. They are specifically exempt from any local laws etc etc that cover advertising (so can do anything they want without any type of permit) , and are right there on the footpath for people to see.
Thus they are now advertising boxes that happen to have a phone – that may or may not work – inside them.
To their credit Telstra are pretty good at keeping hem working.
They have also turned lots of payphones into wifi hotspots.
“Surely not all Americans are like you.”
NO!!! We are not!!
There are ~ 190 million “eligible” voters and (he) won with ~54 million.
Over ~80 million DID NOT VOTE!!
Sickening.
Oh come off it, the majority of people are … lacking, and getting worse, just admit it.
As for the one you are replying to: Other news orgs than Fox, as if the media aimed at at ‘the other side’ is even the tiniest bit better. Same as in the rest of the western world though these days. There was a time there was some out-of-sight news who were allowed to do an effort, but that too is all polarized and folded into ‘the big message’.
And the few independents are just swept up by the pressure of the world at large and lost the ability to be actually somewhat neutral in the sense that they would report things instead of doing the ‘using current events to carry out my views’ thing.
So the best bet might be to a) ignore the news as much as possible and b) watch as many sides as possible to find a trend and hope you can tweak some truth out of it all, but keep in mind that that is not really possible and the best you can hope for is not being swept up in a frenzy by one particular side.
I expect this post might be deleted or the posting will fail, not because I’m saying they are after me, but because it took some time to compile and you will always see on HaD that an effort is wasted for some reason.
It’s pretty typical that you provide evidence that taxes are indeed subsidizing the Telstra pay phones and they insult you for telling folks. And I thought Aussies were a bit more informed than say, Europeans. Maybe the Aussie state has internet blocks on how they spend money. I dunno.
As Australia is a large country it is pretty cool that they can continue to utilize the existing payphone network. But one wonders, like with most tax payer subsidies, is the public really getting enough benefit. For the taxpayer $$ spent?
I don’t want a president, so why would I vote for one?
If the phones are free, I wonder about setting up a dial up style connection.
I’d guess it wouldn’t be available for international calls and no doubt it would be monitored. It could be interesting though.
If you get an acoustic coupler to work with a Telstra payphone be sure to let us know.
So, POTS Ingress?
Yes! Though Payphone Tag rolls better off the tongue.
Well… number of payphones in Brazil: 38 thousand (as of January 2026); in working conditions, about 88% of them (and most likely, inside penitentiaries).
Anyway, public payphones in Brazil are bound to be totally disabled by 2028…