Seems like Australia is crypto friendly. There's also news that ShareRing, a sharering economy blockchain ecosystem , is also integrated across thousands of ETFPOS in Australia.

I'm not sure if we can call LN as working. It's still very new and quite experimental imo. As for the hype, that's how it works in the market. Mainstream media keep posting what's hot and after that they'll move on to another topic. When Bakkt launch, I also believe the hype won't last that long. But it will helps long-term adoption, that's for sure.

Not sure if "crypto-friendly" but some banks in Australia won't lock your account or anything like that just because your buying Bitcoin: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-05/big-four-banks-not-planning-bitcoin-clampdown-yet/9398234

I also read a long time ago that they were trying to enforce some regulations on crypto which is something we need if we want to see cryptos reaching mainstream status. So, it seems like they're slowly turning more pro-bitcoin over the past few years, so it's not surprising that they're already trying out the LN over there.

Rather than the fast transaction confirmations it always gives increased support on buyer seller consumer relation. Because, in the past bitcoin transaction confirmations were the one that made bitcoin get unused from shops accepting bitcoin similar to currency in the locality. Coming further this will make a big change in the consumer market.

Lightning network just needs more places like Australia to take away the lead and show people how it could be so much useful and basically test it before we do to show if there are any issues with it or not. Right now there is absolutely no reason not to use LN because it is far better technology and will always be cheap compared to other options, the only reason people are not moving to that is we don't know how trustworthy it is and how solid the code is, if its perfect without any issue then we can safely say that it will be a great upgrade from the tech we are using right now.

Nonetheless, exchanges and miners may try to block it (and they do have the power to block it) because they are raking so much cash from fees already and that would mean millions of people benefiting from it while some companies losing profits from it so of course they will try to stop something that benefits millions but loses them cash.

Sounds like Australia don't want to be left out.
Also I found this interesting article that soon to be release and they'll use LN in their apps. I think it's cool.
https://dev.lightning.community/lapps/index.html

Sure there's more we can watch out for LN.

It's good to see friendly interface wallets for lightning network.

I would like to test it myself, as I find those initiatives quite interesting