That resolution only came after the South Coast Register got involved.

Mr Woolley and his wife Joanne recently bought a home on Kinghorne Street, Nowra and gained approval from Shoalhaven City Council for renovations, including a new driveway entrance.

Digging up the footpath area off Kinghorne Street in preparation of the new concrete driveway being laid, Mr Woolley came across a galvanised pipe about 70mm below the surface.

According to records the telecommunications wires were supposed to be almost a metre further west towards his property, encased in 50mm conduit.

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He did the right thing and contacted Dial Before You Dig.

Unsure what he was dealing with and not wanting to damage anything important, Mr Woolley started on what he described as a “merry-go-round of phone calls and buck passing”.

He contacted the local gas company and a contractor inspected the pipe, confirming it was the remnants of the old disused Shoalhaven City Council gas line which had been laid throughout the town in the 1950s, when the gasworks operated in Bridge Road.

On closer inspection it was found the metal pipe actually had cables inside - a bright green (now known to be NBN), a thicker black cable (understood to belong to Telstra) and a third, thinner black cable (at this stage unknown whose it is).

“Apparently the contractors installed the cables in the old metal pipe. During inquiries with both companies they both denied it was their cables or that either would have put their cables inside the former gas line.

“The gas contractor has told me they have come across the same sort of problem at a number of locations throughout the town.”

Mr Woolley said when inquiring about the issue, one Telstra employee he spoke to in Queensland, categorically denied it was their cable.

“He informed me there should be two lines there - a P50 - a 50mm polypipe and a 20mm gal pipe - it’s actually 70mm.

“He then proceeded to tell me just to ‘rip it out’.”

Mr Woolley asked for that instruction in writing, which was declined.

Wondering how the pipe made it under his neighbour’s driveway, Mr Woolley did some more digging and found plastic conduit, which had been joined to the galvanised pipe - it even has a slot cut out of it which clearly showed the three cables.

Mr Woolley estimates he has spent about 12 hours on various phone calls and through emails correspondence trying to rectify the problem. He even contacted the Communications Ombudsman and NSW Ombudsman.

Frustrated, he eventually contacted the South Coast Register and after communications with both companies the problem was resolved, with Telstra undertaking remediation work to relocate the pipe and cables lower in the ground.

“I’ve been battling this for six to eight weeks,” Mr Woolley said.

“It’s great it has finally been resolved - but why did it take a call from the local newspaper to get action?

“What most annoyed me was that both NBNCo and Telstra call staff wouldn’t believe me or hand it on to people to come and look and see for themselves.

“It took the media to get involved to get action - they were here within minutes -  down here like a flash.

“We shouldn’t have to do that to get action.

“They all agreed it was an old gas line and the cables should not have gone through it.”

Telstra area general manager Chris Taylor said following a site visit the company undertook to resolve the issue.

“It is still unclear about the origins of how the galvanised pipe came to be used to house the cables, but regardless the installation would be rectified by Telstra to enable the local resident to complete construction on a new driveway,” he said.

“We have apologised to this resident and worked with him to get this sorted as soon as possible.”

With work finished Mr Woolley has now been able to complete his new driveway.