Ye Olde Telephone

Ye Olde Telephone began as a collaboration with the City of Ballarat, initially developed as a “Santa Phone” installation for the Sturt Street Christmas decorations. The project featured a restored phone box containing a period telephone, retrofitted with a Raspberry Pi that allowed members of the public to dial in and listen to recorded messages from Santa.

Building on the success of this installation, the project evolved into Ye Olde Telephone: an original 1940s rotary telephone integrated with custom electronics and software. The rotary dial was reverse-engineered to provide digital input to software running on the Raspberry Pi. With further funding from the City of Ballarat, the system was expanded into an interactive art installation for the Ballarat Heritage Festival, developed in partnership with local voice actors to deliver a curated series of historically themed audio stories accessible via the rotary dial.