Goodman Group’s plan for a $1.2 billion data centre in Lane Cove West drew 374 public submissions.
asserted
plan → draw → submissions
On Monday, Australia’s biggest listed property company gave up.
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company → give → Monday
It told the NSW planning department it would no longer pursue Project Mars, a 90-megawatt facility that would have sat about 20 metres from the nearest home and 160 metres from Lane Cove West Public School.
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that → tell → School
Goodman’s letter said the policy and regulatory environment for large data centres had “evolved significantly”, and that it had weighed those changes against the views of the local community.
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it → say → community
Project Mars is the third data-centre proposal withdrawn in Australia in five months.
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Mars → withdraw → months
Community campaigns sank the $600 million GreenSquare project in the Perth suburb of Hazelmere in May, and a proposal in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains in June.
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campaigns → sink → June
Meanwhile, other developers are digging in: AirTrunk is actively scaling up its planned 1.2-gigawatt campus at Kemps Creek in Sydney’s west, despite similar community backlash.
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AirTrunk → dig → backlash
Sydney alone has 41 state-significant data centre projects in the pipeline, 18 already approved.
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Sydney → have → pipeline
Anthropic is negotiating a $21 billion commercial deal with private developers to make Australia a regional hub for running its AI inference models.
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Australia → negotiate → models
The computing infrastructure to power artificial intelligence the industry wants has to be built next to someone.
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industry → power → someone
If the neighbours can now stop it, where it goes has suddenly become a multibillion-dollar national problem.
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goes → stop → it
Sasha Titchkosky, a spokeswoman for the Lane Cove Responsible Planning Group, said she was “ecstatic”.
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she → say → Group
She credited six months of campaigning, a run of bad press for Goodman, a shareholder resolution the group lodged last week, and the Senate hearing that followed.
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that → credit → Goodman
“Last week was really the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she told this masthead.
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she → break → masthead
The campaign had been building since at least May, when the group’s petition passed 1134 signatures and its members gave evidence to the NSW parliament’s data centre inquiry.
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members → build → inquiry
Stefano Lauria, one of the residents who first contacted this masthead, wrote then that he worked in AI himself.
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he → contact → AI
The group was not opposed to data centres in principle, he said, only to this site.
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he → oppose → site
At the federal Senate inquiry’s first public hearing last week, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson told Goodman’s general manager of developments Ben McGilp that the proposal showed “contempt for local residents” and asked him to withdraw it on the spot.
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proposal → tell → spot
Goodman withdrew it five days later.
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Goodman → withdraw → it
The state’s utilities also had their doubts.
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utilities → have → doubts
Sydney Water said it could not support the project without more detail on its water demand.
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it → say → demand
Ausgrid raised electrocution and fire risks.
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Ausgrid → raise → risks
The plans included a million litres of diesel stored on site.
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plans → include → site
Titchkosky said the business park was built for light industry, and data centres are nothing of the sort.
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centres → say → sort
They run diesel back-up generators and emit noise “24 hours a day, seven days a week”, she said.
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she → run → noise
For most of this year the industry has argued that Australian anger is borrowed.
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anger → argue → year
Belinda Dennett, chief executive of Data Centres Australia, said in a March speech that the local debate was being fought on America’s facts.
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debate → say → facts
The US has about 5400 data centres; Australia has 252.
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Australia → have → 252
Titchkosky called the industry’s early response, that there was “nothing to see here” because Australia had always had data centres, “really disingenuous”.
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Australia → call → centres
Dennett struck a different note on Tuesday.
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Dennett → strike → Tuesday
“The policies under which developers commenced approval processes are changing.
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developers → commence → processes
Community expectations are also changing,” she told this masthead.
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she → change → masthead
Community backlash against data centres has already reached fever pitch in the US.
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backlash → reach → US
A Gallup poll in March found 70 per cent of Americans opposed a new AI data centre in their own neighbourhood.
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cent → find → neighbourhood
In July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul imposed the first statewide pause on large data centre permits.
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Hochul → impose → permits
Texas followed in August, freezing new approvals until its grid is audited.
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grid → follow → approvals
Dennett warned that until governments settle the rules, more data centre customers, investors and developers are likely to “adopt a wait-and-see approach to Australia”.
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customers → warn → Australia
Her group supports a national approach to regulation, more engagement with communities, and faster approvals.
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group → support → communities
“But data centres’ customers and investors have choices, and many countries are actively encouraging investment,” she said.
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she → have → investment
Wherever there’s a power connection
Victoria is moving to require 150-metre buffers between data centres and homes.
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Victoria → ’ → centres
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
