before 1961, australia did not have a national number for emergency services; each of the different emergency branches (police, fire department or ambulance) had their own number. in 1961, the postmaster general (pmg) introduced the triple zero (000) number in most of the major australian cities and by the end of the 1980s it had become nation-wide. the number triple zero (000) was chosen for several reasons, one of which was that it was easy to dial in darkness because the number zero was next to the finger stop on most australian telephones.