Turns Out Even The NBN Don't Know Where They're Building

What on earth is going on with the NBN rollout?

That's the question I posed on Melbourne's Triple M this morning.

In the middle of August, the NBN came to my street in Nunawading, Victoria. The installation crew dug a new pit, leaving behind a large pile of dirt and mud strewn across the remaining lawn. In the middle of the mess was a brand new concrete manhole cover, stamped with the NBN logo.

After a few days when the mess wasn't cleaned up, I called Whitehorse Council to make a complaint. They were not at all surprised to hear from me, saying they had plenty of other local residents with similar complaints. I promptly had my call redirected to NBN Co. and had my concerns recorded. After emailing a photo of the messy nature strip to add to my complaint file, I waited for a response... or a clean up crew.

Three weeks on, there has been no clean up of the nature strip. The grass seeds which were thrown across part of the patch have sprouted some fresh lawn. Then last night came this questionable email reply from NBN Co. denying any involvement:

"Thank you for bringing the issue of the nature strip to our attention, we have investigated this matter with our Delivery Partners and have found that this area is not to be released to them until 12/09/17 for nbn construction therefore we have found that this is not an nbn matter. May I suggest you contact council (if the issue is still present) to find out if any other utility company may have performed work there, thank you." 

After sharing my experience radio this morning, it was no surprise the phone lines were jammed and social media exploded, with stories from people who had a similar tale to share: