000 or 112: What is the emergency services number in Australia?

The emergency services number in Australia is 000, although other numbers including 112 also work in certain circumstances.

If you need the police, fire or ambulance service in Australia, the emergency number is 000. This can be called from all landlines, payphones and mobile phones.

Railway line by Lake Hart, South Australia — If you’re in the outback – for example, next to the Lake Hart salt lake in the South Australian outback – you might not get phone reception on any network. Photo by David Whitley/ Australia Travel Questions.

Even if your network provider has no reception, the call will be carried through another provider that does have reception (usually Telstra). Some providers such as Vodafone can be a little patchy in rural areas. However, you do need to be within range for at least one provider for the call to go through. If you have an unfortunate encounter with Australia’s most dangerous snake in the middle of the outback, for example, you might be wishing you’d brought a satellite phone with you.

Other emergency numbers in Australia

Some other emergency numbers used elsewhere – such as 911 and 999 – might be redirected through to the emergency services. But this is a function of a mobile phone handset programmed to recognise the numbers. From a mobile phone not programmed in this way, or from a landline, nothing will happen.

112, the standard international emergency number, will also work in Australia, but only from mobile phones. For further details on the emergency services number in Australia, visit the Australian government’s Triple Zero site.