By Luke Voogt
NBN Co marked hundreds of locations for “atrocious” green boxes without consultation this week, angering Geelong residents.
East Geelong pensioner Pam McGarigle was furious when she discovered subcontractors marking an area outside her heritage-listed home on Wednesday morning.
“I don’t want a giant green plastic object sitting outside my house which is going to attract graffiti and looks atrocious,” she said.
The Telecommunications Act allows NBN Co to install fibre to the node cabinets without the consent of the landowner, which is Geelong council.
It requires the NBN Co to consult council, but not nearby residents.
“Where has our consultation been?” Ms McGarigle said.
“I think there are other residences experiencing the same indiscriminating legal vandalism.”
She and 520 other people had lodged NBN-related complaints or inquiries with the office of Corio MP Richard Marles since November 2015, a spokesperson said.
Subcontractors marked out a square on Normandy Street for the cabinet, outside her heritage-listed home.
The Geelong stonemason James Drew built the house in 1908 and the City of Greater Geelong had recognised it as historically significant.
Ms McGarigle approached the subcontractors who, according to her, said the marked area would be the location of the one-metre-high cabinet.
“Why couldn’t it go on the median strip goodness’ sake?” she said.
She said another option for the cabinet had been outside a nearby church.
“Why does the church carry more weight than me? Our house is heritage listed and the beautification of our street is magnificent.”
Ms McGarigle, who is member of the Australian Labor Party, said she had no intention of connecting to the NBN.
“That’s the joke of it,” she said.
The node cabinets serviced 250 premises each on average, according NBN Co Victorian manager Russell Kelly.
“There are hundreds of nodes constructed or planned in Geelong,” he said.
“The vast majority are constructed without incident or comment from nearby residents – in fact people living near a node have faster internet speeds.”
The Telecommunications Act requires NBN Co to provide notice of proposed infrastructure activity near the landowner.
NBN Co would soon engage with Geelong council to notify it of its intention to install the cabinets in various locations, spokesperson Kasey Ellison said.
“This has not occurred yet.
“As the rollout of the NBN network in East Geelong is in the preliminary design phase none of the infrastructure locations have been confirmed yet.”
Ms Elision said only the City of Greater Geelong could formally object to the final location.
“However, as part of our commitment to community consultation, we will drop flyers to local residents as we progress the design work,” she said.
