[Youden]

Australians being Australians, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Google pulling out simply led to VPN subscriptions spiking.

It's been a while but Australia used to be in a position where Australians were hungry for US-made media (TV shows, movies) but only received it several days (TV) or weeks to months (movies) after their US release. Piracy was crazy rampant through this time. It wasn't just the tech-savvy folks doing it, even the elderly would know someone who could get them a DVD of some new movies for the kids.

So circumvention of idiotic geoblocks aren't anything new.