000 (emergency telephone number)
000 or Triple Zero is the primary national emergency telephone number in Australia and the Australian External Territories. Triple Zero calls are initially answered by a Telstra Emergency Access Service Point, then transferred to the requested state and territory emergency services organisations. The Triple Zero system is overseen by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and is intended only for use in life-threatening or time-critical emergencies that requires police, fire or ambulance.
When called on a mobile or satellite phone, the international standard emergency telephone number 112 will be redirected to Triple Zero. Other numbers including 911 may be answered, though this is strongly discouraged by the government. For people with a speech or hearing impairment, 106 can be called from a telecommunications device for the deaf textphones. 000 is the only emergency number that can be dialled from fixed lines including public payphones. No SIM card or calling credit is required to call emergency services, and national 'camp-on' arrangements mean that calls to Triple Zero will be passed through any available mobile network.
For non-life-threatening situations and natural disasters, the State Emergency Service number 132 500 should be called instead. For non-emergency calls to the police in Australia, 131 444 should be used.
000 was also the emergency telephone number in Denmark and Finland until the introduction of the 112 number in 1993, and in Norway until 1986, when the emergency telephone numbers diverted to 001 for fire brigade, 002 for police and 003 for ambulance. Those Norwegian emergency telephone numbers changed in 1994 to 110, 112 and 113 respectively.
History
Before 1969, Australia did not have a national telephone number for emergency services; the police, fire and ambulance services had many telephone numbers, one for each local unit. In 1961, the Postmaster-General's Department started introducing the 000 telephone number in major population centres, and during the 1960s, extended its coverage nationwide.The number 000 was chosen for several reasons. Technically, it suited the dialling system for the most remote automatic exchanges, particularly those in outback Queensland. These communities used the digit 0 to select an automatic trunk line to a centre. In the most remote communities, two 0s had to be used to reach a main centre, so dialling 0+0 plus another 0 would call an operator. Zero is also the closest to the finger stall on rotary dial phones making it easy to dial in the dark or an environment with smoke.
Today, the Triple Zero service is operated and maintained by Telstra, formerly known as Telecom Australia, which replaced the Postmaster-General's Department and was Australia's national telecommunications company prior to privatisation in the 1990's.
Calling 000
000 is a free call. If the phone cannot connect to the caller's subscribed network, the phone will attempt to roam and camp-on another carrier's network to carry the call. By law, mobile networks are required to take emergency calls from customers of competing networks through the national camp-on mechanism. For mobile and satellite phones, a SIM card is not required to connect a Triple Zero call via any network. Interpreter services for different languages are available, and non-English speakers are automatically connected to the police in their state or territory.The 2G and 3G mobile networks have been discontinued in Australia and telecommunications providers in Australia are legally prohibited from providing services to phones that cannot access the Triple Zero system. Therefore, to make a call to the Triple Zero network or use any other telecommunications service, the device must be capable of at least 4G or VoLTE for calling.
Answering
Calling 000 begins by connecting to one of several public safety answering points operated by Telstra, called a Emergency Service Access Points, starting with a recorded message stating "You have dialled emergency Triple Zero, your call is being connected". The Telstra operator will ask the caller whether they require police, fire, or ambulance service, and their state or territory. When calling from a landline or public telephone, the location is automatically determined. The call is then transferred to the emergency service operator requested by the caller.As soon as the emergency service call taker answers the call, any available caller location information, ascertained by automatically accessing a special database from the calling line identification data that is provided with all emergency calls, is transferred to the emergency service. However, the emergency service call taker will still question the caller again to verify the caller's location in order to dispatch the correct response.
The caller's address is usually available to Telstra operators for fixed services in Australia even if the number is "private". However, emergency service organisation call takers will always ask for the address of the emergency to be stated whenever possible to ensure an accurate location is provided – this is especially relevant in the case of "third-party" callers who are not personally on the scene of the incident.
iPhone, Apple Watch, and Android smartphones can automatically determine the caller's location through Advanced Mobile Location technology.
Cocos Islands and Norfolk Island have their own Triple Zero infrastructure and calls from these external territories are not handled through Telstra or the mainland Triple Zero infrastructure.
Victoria
In the state of Victoria, emergency service dispatch and call taking for Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, the Country Fire Authority, and Fire Rescue Victoria, is handled by Triple Zero Victoria. They operate three State Emergency Communications Centres, located in Williams Landing, East Burwood, and Ballarat.Calls passed to Triple Zero Victoria will be answered by the first available trained call taker, who will collect information from the caller and enter this into the Computer Aided Dispatch system. Using this information, a dispatcher will identify and dispatch the appropriate emergency services or resources. Emergency crews are often notified by the relevant services' dispatchers while the call taker is still obtaining further information or giving advice, such as guiding the caller through cardiopulmonary resuscitation, obtaining details of a possible offender, or receiving further details about the exact location or situation - an initial response may be made to details as vague as a town or suburb, while the call taker continues to get more specific location information.
Triple Zero Victoria is also responsible for Victorian State Emergency Service call-taking and dispatch, although this service cannot be contacted by dialling 000 as SES calls are not considered to be life-threatening. The number for SES calls is 132 500, but police or another service dialled inappropriately will notify SES.
Many Triple Zero Victoria practices and protocols are standardised across all emergency services agencies, as all agencies use the same computer network. The result is complete and instantaneous information sharing between emergency services.