The 2010 press release announcing the first-release sites for Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) identified five locations chosen for their contrasting ‘housing density, housing type, geography, climate and local infrastructure’. On these measures, the South Australian town of Willunga was described as a ‘small rural town’ with ‘dispersed housing’. It thus served as a model for the country constituencies crucial to securing support for the federal government's large-scale infrastructure investment. But what else made Willunga an ideal first-release site? Are there local histories that shed light on the decision to grant its residents access to high-speed broadband before the rest of the country? This article shares findings from ethnographic research conducted in Willunga during the 2011 NBN roll-out to answer these questions.
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