When this parking meter first came online, parking cost 20 cents per hour and the cars were a lot different.
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But like many of the vehicles that once parked in front of it, it's been superseded by a newer model.
The last of Canberra's single-space car parking meters was 'farewelled' at an ACT government ceremony in Braddon on Friday.
The battered Lonsdale Street meter was the final of 868 meters the ACT government removed from Braddon, Civic and Woden over the past few years.
The machines have been replaced by 145 solar-powered pay and display meters across the city.
Acting urban services minister Mick Gentleman said while the machines had been replaced at a "significant cost", they would pay for themselves through parking fees.
"What we see now is the ACT government installing a whole new set of parking machines across the territory and of course new technology. We have parking apps that you can use on your mobile phone [that] tell you when your parking is due to expire and give you the opportunity to renew the parking on your mobile phone," Mr Gentleman said.
Parking meters injected $15.2 million into ACT government coffers last financial year, excluding GST.
New parking meters cost the territory government about $1.2 million in the same period.
Additionally, the 37 paid parking inspectors cost the government $3 million in 2015-16. That figure includes allowance, overtime, leave loading payments and superannuation.
Paid parking in parts of Canberra has been in effect since 1972, first on Ainslie Avenue.
ACT parking operations manager Richard Siddall said the modern machines are much less work to manage than the old ones.
"They were fairly labour intensive, our technicians had to be here each day to empty them so you couldn't leave money in them and there was a limit to how much they could hold. Many particularly in the higher use areas would be full each day," he said.
With parking in some centres around Canberra now close to $16 per day, many Canberrans will be nostalgic for a time when parking cost 20 cents per hour.
The 1972 parking rate equates to $2 per hour in today's currency. In Braddon, parking is $3 per hour.
But while parking fees are much maligned by Canberrans, apparently we have it quite good, according to Mr Siddall.
"A parking bay costs a lot of money, it's not just a piece of bitumen there's a whole lot more that goes behind it. You'd die if you paid the full amount per day it costs to run," Mr Siddall said.
Funds gleaned from parking go to consolidated revenue and are then reinvested in parking and roads infrastructure, Mr Gentleman said.
But despite the WIN television van making several loops of Lonsdale Street in search of a park behind the minister during the ceremony , Mr Gentleman said parking in Braddon was sufficient.
"There's quite a bit of parking in the vicinity of Braddon, even I parked underground across the road this morning, [and] there's quite a bit of car parking in the Canberra Centre a short walk from Braddon," Mr Gentleman said.
