An “ugly” NBN node box has ruined Susan and Shaun Wootton’s plans to build their “dream home” in East Geelong, they told the Indy on Wednesday.
NBN Co installed the box on a nature strip outside the couple’s house in August “without any communication”, Mrs Wootton said.
“We just saw the green box and thought, ‘hang on, where did that come from?’”
Mrs Wootton immediately contacted NBN Co, which told her a re-assessment of the node’s location would cost a non-refundable fee of $1100.
The reassessment would not guarantee a relocation of the box, the government-owned corporation told her.
NBN Co told the Wootton’s they would have to pay the costs of moving the box, minus the assessment fee, if assessors decided in their favour.
“We shouldn’t have to pay tens of thousands of dollars which could have been avoided if NBN had just communicated with us,” Mrs Wootton said.
The box is located on a nature strip to the rear of the current house, which the couple purchased in 2016.
In December 2017 they met with council planning staff to discuss demolishing the current house and building a new house facing the property’s opposite frontage.
But the “big ugly green box” now marring that frontage had ruined their plans, Mrs Wootton said.
“We understand nodes have to be placed somewhere but it shouldn’t prevent us from building our dream home.”
NBN Co on Wednesday provided the Indy with a copy of a letter to the address dated 29 January.
But Mrs Wootton said her tenants at the house “had no memory” of NBN Co contacting them at all.
An NBN Co spokesperson said the corporation contacted the occupants and received no objections to the proposed site for the box, before installing it.
“Nearby residents are routinely notified of the intended placement of infrastructure and siting is determined as much as possible to satisfy competing demands.”
NBN Co informed Geelong’s council of the site as required under the Telecommunications Act 1997, the spokesperson said.
