A sprawling data centre proposed for Melbourne’s west heads a queue of nine similar projects awaiting planning decisions as the clock ticks down to the state election.
asserted
clock → sprawl → election
Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny has until 6pm on Tuesday to make a call on more than $5 billion in data centre proposals before caretaker mode puts a freeze on government decision-making.
Leading the queue is the Brooklyn proposal, where developer Stockland wants to spend almost $1 billion turning a thriving distribution centre it owns into an enormous data centre.
asserted
it → have → centre
Under the Stockland plan, the data centre would rise as high as an eight-storey building, with acoustic screens atop its data halls to stop scores of rooftop chiller units breaching night-time noise limits.
asserted
scores → rise → limits
Stockland had expected a state government decision last month on its proposal, to ultimately cover 22 hectares – the equivalent of 11 MCG playing surfaces – from Francis Street to the West Gate Freeway.
asserted
Stockland → expect → Freeway
The developer applied through the state government’s fast-track Development Facilitation Program in May; the ministerial pathway bypasses local councils and strips residents of appeal rights.
uncertain
pathway → apply → rights
Almost all of Melbourne’s proposed data centres are taking this approval route.
asserted
all → propose → route
Across Melbourne, the speed of data centre construction has outpaced traditional planning frameworks.
asserted
speed → outpace → frameworks
Driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, tech companies have poured billions into Melbourne’s industrial west, making it the fastest-growing digital infrastructure market in Australia.
asserted
it → drive → Australia
“When I last searched for sites around my home, there were five hyperscale data centres within two-and-a-half kilometres of me,” said Carmen Largaiolli, a long-time Brooklyn resident who has campaigned for years to improve air quality and living standards in her suburb.
asserted
who → search → suburb
She said the Stockland proposal was just the latest data centre to encroach on Brooklyn.
asserted
proposal → say → Brooklyn
An enormous CDC data centre campus to the immediate north of Brooklyn, facilitated by the state government, is still expanding, while down Francis Street sits a growing Microsoft data hub.
asserted
hub → facilitate → Street
Largaiolli said several data centre developers had employed a multi-stage strategy to get sprawling campuses approved.
asserted
campuses → say → strategy
“This is what all the hyperscale data centres do: they get an approval for stage one, and then they’ve got all the subsequent stages yet to come,” she said.
asserted
she → do → stages
“As long as they get approval for stage one, all the remaining stages follow.”
asserted
stages → get → stage
Largaiolli questioned Australia’s push to host vast server infrastructure for global firms, and called on state and federal leaders to halt suburban approvals.
asserted
Largaiolli → question → approvals
“I’m calling for a moratorium along with the growing voice of community groups from all over Melbourne.
asserted
I → call → Melbourne
On Friday, all 79 Victorian councils united to demand a moratorium on new data centre approvals.
asserted
councils → unite → approvals
Municipal Association of Victoria president Jennifer Anderson said councils were not being given the time, information and resources to consider data centres’ cumulative impacts: “This is despite our sector being on the front line of managing community expectations, as well as the ongoing impacts and opportunities associated with the rapid expansion of data centres,” she said.
asserted
she → say → centres
The Australian Energy Market Operator projects data centre power use will rise from 2 per cent of national grid capacity to 6 per cent within a decade.
asserted
use → project → decade
The boom reflects a global phenomenon.
asserted
boom → reflect → phenomenon
In the United States, data centre clusters in states such as Virginia and Texas have driven up household energy bills and sparked street protests over transmission lines and continuous industrial hums.
asserted
clusters → drive → lines
Across Europe, authorities in Ireland and the Netherlands have introduced outright bans on new grid connections to protect domestic power supplies.
asserted
authorities → introduce → supplies
Australia is now running into the same sorts of community blockades, investor jitters and grid bottlenecks.
asserted
Australia → run → blockades
Industry group Data Centres Australia counters that fears over energy drains are inflated by “phantom demand” – pointing to research showing only one in seven data centre electricity connection applications results in a finished building, as many developers lodge speculative bids.
asserted
developers → counter → bids
The Brooklyn plan remains on Kilkenny’s desk, alongside eight other mega-projects across outer Melbourne.
asserted
plan → remain → Melbourne
Hobsons Bay City Council has objected to the Brooklyn plan, telling the state government that local community oversight had been reduced to a meaningless “procedural exercise”.
asserted
oversight → object → exercise
If the planning minister does not make a decision by 6pm on Tuesday, the proposal will not be addressed until after the November 28 election – and likely not until well into next year.
asserted
proposal → make → year
A Victorian government spokesman said every data centre proposal went through a rigorous assessment.
asserted
proposal → say → assessment
Asked how many of the nine planning applications before the minister were likely to be decided by 6pm on Tuesday, the spokesman declined to answer.
asserted
spokesman → ask → Tuesday
Technical assessments prepared by acoustic consultants for Stockland reveal the facility’s 96 rooftop chillers will require an 11-decibel noise reduction package just to meet state noise thresholds along busy Millers Road, where the nearest homes stand 170 metres away.
asserted
homes → prepare → Road
Hobsons Bay planning officers criticised the project, stating it “ignores the fundamentals of planning in Victoria”.
asserted
it → criticise → Victoria
Mayor Diana Grima wrote to Kilkenny earlier this year, urging her to reject the application.
asserted
Grima → write → application
She warned that placing a 24-hour data facility near homes – alongside 3.3 million litres of bulk diesel fuel and 112 emergency generators – poses severe cumulative noise, air quality, and visual risks for a suburb already burdened by heavy industrial pollution.
asserted
placing → warn → pollution
Local MP and Labor minister Melissa Horne backed calls for community feedback to be given weight.
asserted
feedback → back → weight
“I would like to see the same guardrails applied to this data centre that applies to any new planning determination,” she said.
asserted
she → like → determination
The Liberal candidate for Williamstown, Paul Lindemann, declined to comment on Stockland’s proposal when contacted about the plan.
asserted
candidate → decline → plan
“It’s Liberal Party policy at this stage that we don’t speak to any mastheads about our policies,” Lindemann said, before adding: “No comment.”
asserted
Lindemann → ’ → comment
Opposition planning spokesman David Southwick did not respond to multiple attempts to contact him about data centre approvals.
asserted
Southwick → respond → approvals
Former Hobsons Bay mayor Tony Briffa, also running for the state seat of Williamstown, said while she appreciated data centres could be useful, “applications must be put on hold while Victoria does not have adequate planning rules to address serious issues about them”.
uncertain
Victoria → run → them
Briffa said the Stockland data centre’s first stage was less than 200 metres from homes.
asserted
stage → say → homes
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
