Alternative number to calling 000 EMERGENCY in Australia during an outage
In recent times and in the past, Australia has had some 000 Emergency call centre failures which may or may not be affecting telecommunications providers NBN, Telstra, Optus, TPG etc (landline and mobile) and all other resellers of their services, from time to time, when trying to make and place an EMERGENCY 000 call (News sources quoted below).
When you call EMERGENCY 000 in Australia, these calls are routed through to various Telstra call centres who then answer the call and connect you through directly to Police, Fire or Ambulance emergency services.
Recently, the Optus network in various states failed in their ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) obligated requirements to ensure 000 calls are connected into call centres, with many calls failing to connect for emergency calls that need emergency help. Sadly three people have died needlessly.
So what do you do in these circumstances?
It's simple, you need to know the alternative number when 000 doesn't work, because it doesn't always work.
The number you need to know is 112 via mobile device only. But it doesn't end there. It's vital that you know how to use it correctly, because just knowing the number isn't enough. You need some extra knowledge and skill to successfully increase the chance of succeeding in an emergency duress call. To find out how to learn these skills for free, please read on.
In emergency life threatening situations, EVERYONE should have some basic survival skills and first aid skills to help when you can not get emergency help. Why? Because YOU are the help until professional emergency services help arrives (unless you're alone).
To mitigate this, you should seriously consider doing our FREE Basic Survival course. This is available in our Training Academy and to access the training, you just have to sign up for a no obligation, free trial membership. This gives you plenty of opportunity to undergo the training.
In the Basic Survival course, you will learn the fantastic alternative number to call, should you be in this situation. I can't even say a rare situation, because it's now happened a few times across the providers.
Without any further ado, I implore you to undergo the Basic Survival course. It won't take up too much of your time and it will advise on how to utilise that number in any survival or emergency situation. Remember this one piece of important advice, don't give up trying to get through and it's important to understand how to implement the right strategy when using the alternative number, not just simply knowing it.
I'll finish by advising that if you're calling from a landline, 000 is the only number to call, don't give up trying, or get your mobile device and immediately try using the alternative number as specifically taught in the Basic Survival Training course. Be informed and keep safe.
News articles of interest:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-23/timeline-on-optus-triple-0-outage-what-we-know/105805890
At the Australian Peoples Survival League, we care about the safety and survivability of Australians, so we put together plans, processes, training and information to better forge a mutual circle of assistance, so when a crisis emerges, we are better prepared than ordinary persons. Want to be better prepared? Join for free and start your journey of survivability in mutual assistance groups, surviving together.
