The tiny detail on this heritage listed building from the 1840s has everyone talking – and it’s not because of the recognisable brand name
- Australian man has shared a picture of an old advertisement on the side of a wall
- The building it is on was built in the 1840s and was used as a settler’s home
- The ad features a short phone number of just four digits, rather than usual 10
A very small detail on the side of a heritage listed building in Australia has piqued the interest of residents living near it.
An advertisement for McCann’s Bros music has been restored to its original form – complete with a four-digit phone number – on the side of a building known as ‘Loretto’ in Hobart, Tasmania.
‘Caught this on a bus tour of Hobart. Check out the phone number,’ a man said after sharing the image to Facebook.
Australian mobile numbers are written in the form of ten digits in length, since when dialled within the country the trunk code 0 must be included, plus 4, which indicates the service required is a mobile number.
An advertisement for McCann’s Bros music has been restored to its original form – complete with a four-digit phone number – on the side of a building known as ‘Loretto’ in Hobart, Tasmania
In this case the number was simply 4183.
‘I remember having a six digit phone number in Hobart when I was a kid back in the 80s,’ one woman replied.
‘Hobart? They must’ve started numbering from 4000,’ one man said.
Another man asked: ‘I wonder how many clients they got, in terms of five shillings a week? Back in the Twenties and Thirties, this was like the equivalent of a weeks wages for some of the lowest paid workers?’
The building, which was restored with the assistance of the Bob Brown Foundation in 2017, is at the top of Warneford Street in west Hobart
The building, which was restored with the assistance of the Bob Brown Foundation in 2017, is at the top of Warneford Street in west Hobart.
The advertisement is for a music store on Elizabeth Street in the CBD.
The building itself was erected in the 1840s, first as a settler’s home and later as a boarding house.
McCann’s Bros music is now McCann’s Music Centre, according to the foundation.
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