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The Question That Bugged Me in Perth

I live half the year in Perth, staring at the Indian Ocean, and the other half hopping between co-working spaces in Sydney and Melbourne. As a remote contractor handling sensitive legal documents, a VPN isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. I’ve used Proton VPN for three years. But a month ago, a client in Newcastle, NSW, asked me to test something specific: “Can you route traffic through a server actually inside Newcastle, not just Sydney?”

Newcastle users want confirmation that their city is covered by servers. The Proton VPN servers count in Australian cities does include Newcastle via nearby hubs. For how to connect to Newcastle-optimized routes, please follow this link: https://www.hwylife.com.au/group-page/hwy-life-group/discussion/e06a0b43-d2f7-4273-92e4-22184ce5d49e 

That question hit me like a hot flat white. Most VPNs list “Australia” as a location, but that usually means Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane. Regional cities like Newcastle, Wollongong, or Cairns are often invisible. So I decided to run an ugly, hands-on experiment. Does the Proton VPN servers count in Australian cities include Newcastle? Or is Newcastle just a ghost on the map?

Methodology: Turning My Laptop into a Digital Detective

I built a three-step test. First, I pulled the official Proton VPN server list from their API (January 2026 data). Second, I manually connected to every Australian server Proton offered, recording the IP’s geolocation using MaxMind, IP2Location, and a cheeky DNS leak test. Third, I measured latency from a friend’s apartment in Newcastle’s east end, near the beach.

I used two identities: a free user (three countries, one device) and a paid Plus user. Why? Because Proton hides precise city names behind a paywall. The free tier only shows “Australia (Sydney).” The paid tier supposedly reveals “Australia – Newcastle,” “Australia – Brisbane,” etc.

The Hard Numbers That Surprised Me

Here is what my ping log showed at 2 PM local time over five consecutive days.

Paid Plus Account (Proton VPN v5.4.2):

Total Australian servers displayed: 47 virtual/physical nodes.Cities explicitly listed: Sydney (19 servers), Melbourne (14), Brisbane (8), Perth (4), Adelaide (2).Newcastle: zero. Not a single entry named “Newcastle” in the country selector or the advanced city dropdown.

But I didn’t stop there. I forced my client’s Newcastle IP address (a residential NBN connection) into a VPN tunnel. Then I ran a reverse DNS on every Australian Proton server IP. Out of 47 nodes, 5 returned hostnames like “au-nsw-012.protonvpn.com” – where “nsw” could mean anywhere in New South Wales.

I manually geolocated those five IPs. Result: Four resolved to Sydney AWS data centres (optical fibres clearly labelled “SYD”). One resolved to a suburb called Charlestown – which is 12 kilometres south-west of Newcastle’s centre. Charlestown is not Newcastle, but it’s closer than Sydney (160 km away). That single server showed 8 ms latency from my Newcastle test point. Sydney servers showed 22-35 ms.

Free Tier Account:

Australian cities shown: 1 – “Sydney” only.Newcastle: absent.Proton VPN servers count in Australian cities for free users is exactly one city: Sydney. No regional representation.

So the literal answer to the question: No, Proton does not count Newcastle as a distinct city in its official list. But technically, one server in Charlestown serves the greater Newcastle area.

Comparative Style: Proton vs. Three Competitors

I ran the same test using NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Mullvad. Here is the raw comparison table in sentence form.

NordVPN showed “Australia – Newcastle” as a dedicated server location starting in late 2025. Four servers, all ping from within Newcastle’s postcode 2300. ExpressVPN hid everything behind “Australia – All locations.” When I connected to “Sydney” from Newcastle, latency was 18 ms – decent, but no city label. Mullvad, the privacy purist, showed only “Australia” and refused to disclose any city names. Proton sat in the middle: better than Mullvad, worse than Nord.

My personal experience: Proton’s Charlestown server delivered stable 95 Mbps on a 250 Mbps NBN connection. That is usable for Netflix or banking. But the psychological effect mattered more. When I searched “Proton VPN Newcastle,” I found forum threads from 2023 asking the same question. Three years later, the answer is still “no proper label.”

Experimental Tone: What I Broke and What I Learned

I decided to break Proton’s server selection script. I wrote a small Python loop that kept refreshing the server list every 30 seconds for 2 hours, hoping a Newcastle node would appear as a ghost. Nothing. I then used OpenVPN manually – directly connecting to the Charlestown IP without Proton’s app. It worked, but the city tag in the app remained “Sydney.” I consider this a UI lie. If a server sits in Charlestown, Proton should call it “Newcastle” or at least “Hunter Region.”

The ethical friction comes here: Proton advertises “secure core servers in Australia” plus “high-speed servers in major cities.” Newcastle is Australia’s seventh largest city, population 500,000. It has a major university (Newcastle), a port, and global mining companies. Ignoring it means half a million users either accept misleading latency or trust a competitor.

Personal Experience: Two Weeks as a Fake Novocastrian

I relocated myself virtually for 14 days. I set Proton to that Charlestown server permanently. Then I ran daily tasks:

Day 1: Banking with Commonwealth Bank. The bank flagged “Charlestown” as a known regional hub – no fraud alert.Day 4: Streaming ABC iView. Showed me Newcastle local news (NBN News). Correct geolocation.Day 9: Online shopping at Kmart. Shipping address set to Newcastle. The site showed me stock levels for Charlestown store – accurate.Day 12: Work video call with a client in Singapore. My IP said “Charlestown.” The client asked, “Are you in Newcastle?” First time anyone noticed.

The only failure: a weather website refused to show “Newcastle” forecasts, defaulting to “Sydney.” Why? Because Proton’s server geolocation database listed the IP as “Greater Sydney Region.” So infrastructure wise, the server is local. Software wise, the city label is wrong.

A Half-Truth Hidden in Suburbs

Does Proton VPN count Newcastle among its Australian cities? No. The official count is zero. But a technical user can find one grey-area server in a nearby suburb. This creates an ethical mismatch: Proton markets transparency but hides accurate city names from its own interface. A novice user in Newcastle would never discover that server.

My experimental verdict: 3 out of 5 stars for regional honesty. Proton needs to rename “Charlestown” to “Newcastle” immediately. Until then, if you live in Newcastle, you are in a digital blind spot. You are served, but you are not counted.

I have sent this report to Proton’s support team. They replied with a generic “We will forward your suggestion.” I am not holding my breath. But next week, I will test if Hobart appears anywhere. Something tells me Tasmania does not exist in Proton’s geography either.

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