‘Robbed of Survival’: Emergency Hotline Outage Leaves Lives on the Line in Victoria

The Union confirmed the death of a patient in Melbourne.

A row of Ambulances are seen lined up outside the North Melbourne Public Housing tower complex in Melbourne, Australia on July 8, 2020. Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

An outage of the Australian emergency telephone number or Triple Zero at Telstra’s national call centre plunged Victorians into “chaos” overnight, according to the Victorian Ambulance Union.

During the hour-long outage, Telstra operators could answer calls but could not transfer them to Triple Zero call centres in multiple states, including Victoria.