Australian IP Address From Abroad: Steps and Results From 5 VPNs

Every VPN we checked produced an Australian IP address in the city it named. In our October tests on a Windows 11 PC in Europe, NordVPN, Proton VPN, and PIA showed Perth on whatismyipaddress.com, ExpressVPN showed Sydney, and Surfshark showed Brisbane. The ISP field showed a difference. PIA and ExpressVPN listed their IP addresses under “VPN Consumer,” a name that marks the connection as a VPN to sites that check.

What Websites See on an Australian VPN Server

We connected each VPN to an Australian server and recorded what whatismyipaddress.com reported. Speeds come from the same servers, measured against a 190.36 Mbps connection with no VPN.

VPN	Server	City shown	ISP shown	Download
NordVPN	Perth	Perth	PacketHub S.A.	135.60 Mbps
Proton VPN	Perth	Perth	Host Universal Pty Ltd	79.97 Mbps
ExpressVPN	Sydney	Sydney	VPN Consumer Sydney Australia	125.26 Mbps
PIA	Perth	Perth	VPN Consumer Perth Australia	126.01 Mbps
Surfshark	Brisbane	Brisbane	BITE	100.30 Mbps

The city matched the server on every VPN, along with the state, postcode, and time zone. No IPv6 address appeared on any of them, so the connection didn’t reveal our actual location through a second channel. The five differed in the ISP column. Most sites only check the country, but a service that reads the ISP name can spot “VPN Consumer” at a glance.

Proton VPN’s IP address belongs to Host Universal, an Australian hosting company, and NordVPN’s to PacketHub.  Both still read as data centers, so a streaming service with strict detection can identify any of these VPNs. Our guide to changing your IP address explains how websites read these details.

Which Australian City to Choose

Australian websites check the country, so the city mainly affects speed. Choose the city closest to you. From Europe, that’s Perth, which gave NordVPN, PIA, and Proton VPN their fastest Australian results. Viewers in Asia or the Americas will usually do better on Sydney or Brisbane.

• NordVPN: Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney, plus obfuscated Australian servers.
• Proton VPN: 281 servers in five cities, 72 of them in Melbourne.
• ExpressVPN: seven locations across five cities, including two in Sydney.
• PIA: five cities and an “Australia Streaming Optimized” location.
• Surfshark: 40 servers in five cities.

5 VPNs With Australian Servers

1. NordVPN: Fastest Australian Servers

NordVPN’s Perth server measured 135.60 Mbps, a 28.8% drop from our baseline and the fastest Australian result we recorded. A dedicated IP address is available in two Australian cities, which keeps the same IP address between sessions for banking and work logins. Threat Protection Lite, the ad blocker included on every plan, also filters trackers. The Basic plan works out to under $3.50 a month over 27 months. Our NordVPN and ExpressVPN comparison covers the two side by side.

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2. Proton VPN: Best for Privacy-First Users

Proton VPN’s Perth server has no Smart routing badge, so it’s physically in Perth, which the IP lookup confirmed. Speed was its weak result: 79.97 Mbps, a 58.0% drop and the lowest Australian result we recorded. Swiss jurisdiction and Secure Core put Proton VPN ahead on privacy, at the cost of speed. Two years of the VPN Plus plan average under $3 a month, and it covers ten devices.

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3. ExpressVPN: Most Australian Locations

ExpressVPN lists the most Australian locations, seven in total. In Sydney, it came in at 125.26 Mbps, 34.2% below the baseline. The IP lookup showed Sydney, with “VPN Consumer Sydney Australia” in the ISP field, which tells a careful site the connection comes from a VPN. On the 28-month term, ExpressVPN’s Basic plan comes to under $3 a month. It obfuscates every connection automatically, with no setting to enable.

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4. Private Internet Access: Best for Australian Streaming

PIA’s Perth result, 126.01 Mbps, was the second-fastest, 33.8% under our baseline. PIA unblocked Kayo, Binge, and Foxtel’s sign-up page on its regular servers and its “Australia Streaming Optimized” location. The ISP field read “VPN Consumer Perth Australia.” PIA costs under $2 a month on its two-year plan, the cheapest long-term price among these VPNs, and our PIA review covers the rest of its apps.

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5. Surfshark: Best for Large Households

Download on Surfshark’s Brisbane server was 100.30 Mbps, 47.3% under the baseline, and the lookup listed BITE as the ISP. Surfshark sells a dedicated IP in Sydney for users who want the same Australian IP address every time. Surfshark’s Starter plan is about $2.50 a month across 27 months, with no cap on connected devices. Our Surfshark review covers its antivirus bundles.

Visit Surfshark

What an Australian IP Address Unlocks

Kayo, Binge, and the Foxtel sign-up page unblocked on every VPN we tested, and 7plus played on NordVPN, Proton VPN, and ExpressVPN. Free-to-air catch-up services such as 9Now and SBS On Demand check for an Australian IP address too.

Our guides to Australian TV abroad, 9Now, SBS, and Stan cover each service, and the Australian Open streams free on 9Now in January. For the full ranking, see our best VPNs for Australia, and our streaming VPN rankings cover other catalogs.

Free VPNs and Australian Servers

Most reputable free VPNs leave Australia out. Proton VPN, Windscribe, and PrivadoVPN have no Australian servers on their free plans. Some free VPNs that list Australia come with serious problems:

• Hola VPN: free use requires sharing your device’s bandwidth and IP address with Bright Data. In our test, it also exposed our real IPv6 address, and its kill switch is off by default.
• Urban VPN: it logs browsing data and has no kill switch.

Our free VPNs for Australia page compares the free plans in more detail.

Other Ways to Get an Australian IP Address

• Proxy server: an Australian proxy changes the IP address in one browser or app, with no encryption. Our proxy vs VPN comparison covers the differences.
• Tor: Tor Browser can be set to Australian relays, but the choice is small and pages load slowly. Streaming services block Tor.
• Smart DNS: it reroutes only the services it supports, leaves your IP address unchanged elsewhere, and doesn’t encrypt traffic.

Bottom Line

With the city right on each VPN, the choice rests on speed and the ISP label. NordVPN had the fastest Australian server and a dedicated IP option in two cities. Proton VPN makes the strongest privacy case, with an IP address registered to an Australian hosting company, at a lower speed. PIA and ExpressVPN worked but labeled their IP addresses “VPN Consumer,” and Surfshark covers a household with unlimited devices.

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