I've been following cypherpunks related stuff since the mid 90s. But I've kept no notes or records. So I don't exactly recall the timeframe. But it was definitely years before the whitepaper. And as I said, I recall hints that developers were Australian.

Actually, perhaps I do have records. But finding them would be nontrivial. I have lots of old FDE drives. But no labels about content, for obvious reasons.