Westnet inactive
WA ISP, founded in Geraldton, moved to Perth; acquired by iiNet for $81M in 2008 (WESTNET PTY LTD, ACN 086 416 908).
Name history
| Name | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Westnet | 1994 |
Lifecycle
| Kind | Date | Details | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|
| birth | 1994 | Founded by Chris and Rhonda Thomas in Geraldton WA; moved to Perth 1999. | |
| note | 2000 | Operated the Seacrest Estate private-fibre broadband service in Geraldton (estate launched Jul 2000, one of Australia's first fibre estates; developer-owned passive network). Westnet's Oct 2001 newsletter describes its estate POP (satellite international + multilinked ISDN domestic, VLAN-per-household on Cisco kit); later upgrades added WipLL wireless backhaul and an estate PPPoE LNS. Service continued after the 2008 iiNet acquisition but faded as ADSL reached Tarcoola Beach exchange (~2008) and NBN arrived mid-2010s; no documented post-acquisition investment. Geraldton ISP NodeOne (founded 2009) eventually became the estate's sole provider. Swoop bought the conduit/fibre from the original developer (Jun 2024, $500K, ~900 homes), rebuilt it as wholesale FTTP and switched the legacy network off 30 Jun 2025. NOTE: no public record of a formal customer transfer from iiNet to NodeOne — attrition, not offload. | |
| death | 2008 | Acquired by iiNet for $81 million. | news |
Transitions
| Direction | Type | Other party | Arm / notes | Year | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| incoming | acquisition | Comswest | ISP division Comswest ISP division sold to Westnet (iiNet group; Comswest parent continued as enterprise services. page last updated 12 Apr 1999. site redirected to WestNet. |
by 17 Apr 1999 | news archive archive archive forum |
| incoming | acquisition | Aurum Internet | 100% Aurum Internet acquired by WestNet. aurum.net.au serving the WestNet site. |
by 16 Aug 2000 | news archive archive |
| incoming | acquisition | SWISP | 100% SWISP taken over by WestNet. |
c.2001 | news archive archive |
| incoming | acquisition | Treko Internet | 100% Treko folded into WestNet. |
Q2-Q3 2001 | news archive archive |
| outgoing | acquisition | iiNet | 100% Westnet acquired for $81 million; cemented third-largest ISP status. |
2008 | wikipedia |