This is pretty common. It largely began with GDPR regulations in Europe. These legacy media companies in the US didn't want to pay to comply with foreign regulations. Since they derive a tiny fraction of a percent from overseas visitors, they do not have any incentive to comply, and to ensure they don't inadvertently break the laws, they block EU visitors.
They could have added Australia somewhat more recently. I'm not sure if there was similar legislation in AUS that would have caused them to add your country to the list.