AUDIO: The heritage listing that honours a Narooma payphone's bushfire role - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Residents queue to use free wifi at a Telstra pay phone in Narooma, January 1, 2020. (ABC News: Jade Macmillan)

An old payphone outside a shopping centre in Narooma, on the New South Wales South Coast, has been added to a state heritage register.

The phone became a lifeline when the Black Summer bushfires cut power and phone lines on New Year's Day 2020, with residents patiently queuing to call loved ones and arrange help.

Historian Naomi Parry Duncan led the nomination to the National Trust of Australia's New South Wales register, and says the listing honours the role payphones have played in Australian life for almost 140 years.