Peter McGeary, who cares for his wife, said the situation left him in trouble if they needed medical help. 

“If something happened at one, 2am, I can’t see the neighbours really helping us out, and the closest phone box is up on Creswick Road,” he said. 

Last Wednesday, a truck drove down the street and ignored Mr McGeary’s warning that it would hit the phone line. “I said to him (the truck driver), ‘You won’t be able to get through at the bottom of the street’, but he didn’t listen to me,” he said. 

“I came out to have a look a little bit later and the wires were on the road. He’d just driven off.” 

The timing was unfortunate, with Mr McGeary’s property due to be connected to the NBN in May. 

It would have made little sense to replace the street’s principal phone cabling for a few weeks before it was made redundant. 

Telstra offered him a mobile phone but his eye problems mean he can’t see the buttons. 

Mr McGeary said the downed wire was quickly cleaned up but a solution to his phone problem was harder to find. 

He was disappointed by Telstra’s initial efforts to solve the problem, but was pleased it sent out a worker on Tuesday, who solved the issue without cutting through too much of

Mr McGeary’s concrete porch.