Our origins date back to 1901, when the Postmaster-General's Department was established by the Commonwealth Government to manage all domestic telephone, telegraph and postal services, and to 1946, when the Overseas Telecommunications Commission was established by the Commonwealth Government to manage international telecommunications services.
Since then we have been transformed and renamed several times as follows:
- the Australian Telecommunications Commission, trading as Telecom Australia in July 1975;
- the Australian Telecommunications Corporation, trading as Telecom Australia in January 1989;
- the Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation Limited in February 1992;
- Telstra Corporation Limited in April 1993, trading internationally as Telstra; and
- trading domestically as Telstra in 1995.
We were incorporated as an Australian public limited liability company in November 1991.
Following the opening of Australia's telecommunications markets to full competition in July 1997, we underwent a partial privatisation in November 1997 under which the Commonwealth sold approximately 33 per cent of our issued shares to the public.
Following the initial privatisation, those of our shares that are not held by the Commonwealth are quoted on the Australian Stock Exchange and on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. American depositary shares, each representing five shares evidenced by American depositary receipts, have been issued by the Bank of New York as depositary (Depositary) and are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
In March 2007, Telstra confirmed its intention to withdraw the listing of its American Depositary Shares, evidenced by American Depositary Receipts (ADR), and the underlying ordinary shares from the New York Stock Exchange. In conjunction with the delisting, Telstra will be moving to an over-the-counter ADR program. The securities will not be listed on any other exchange in the United States, but Telstra's ordinary shares will continue to be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
A further global offering by the Commonwealth of up to 16.6 per cent of our issued shares was launched in September 1999. The shares sold by the Commonwealth were also listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, the New Zealand Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange on 18 October 1999.
In November 2006, the Commonwealth sold its remaining stake in Telstra as part of the T3 Share Offer. Its residual 17 per cent shareholding was transferred to the Future Fund in February 2007.
- Visit our telecommunications timeline to read more about key Telstra and wider telecommunication industry milestones.
