People didn't ask for the 727? On hot days in Canberra airline staff were begging head office for 727s rather than DC-9s because the DC-9s had to leave half the passengers behind.
When turboprops did start to re appear on Canberra-Sydney (Ansett Fokker 50s, then Dash 8s for Australian Airlines) some people did ask if there was a jet two hours either side of the prop departure. Nowadays if you want a jet you will have a very long wait.