Since this edition of Good Weekend went to print, Goodman has withdrawn its proposal for the Project Mars data centre.
asserted
Goodman → go → centre
This story has been updated to reflect this announcement.
asserted
story → update → announcement
Shavarsh Bedrossian might be 82 years old, but he remains a man of restless energy and boundless interests.
uncertain
he → remain → energy
He carves wooden toys at his neighbourhood men’s shed, which he donates to orphanages in PNG.
asserted
he → carve → PNG
He organises scenic lunches at his local Probus Club.
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He → organise → Club
He regularly plays ping pong at the Hunters Hill Glades Table Tennis Group, where he is the president, vice president and treasurer.
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he → play → Group
But perhaps his greatest love is his home, a modest brick bungalow in Lane Cove, on Sydney’s north shore, where he has lived for 56 years and four months.
asserted
he → live → years
“I bought it for $15,900 in May 1970,” he tells me, sitting at his dining-room table.
uncertain
he → buy → table
“The owner threw in his dog, too, a little dachshund, because he was going to a nursing home and couldn’t take it with him.
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he → throw → him
So I got the house and a dog!”
asserted
I → get → house
Bedrossian, who was born in Egypt to Armenian parents, has seen plenty of change in Lane Cove, which used to be the site of a rubbish tip, but has long been gentrified by professionals and young families.
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which → bear → professionals
He had hoped to live out his final years here in peace and quiet.
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He → hop → peace
Then, one day in April 2025, he received a glossy flyer from a company called Goodman, announcing plans to build a new data centre, Project Mars, in the nearby business park in Lane Cove West.
asserted
he → receive → West
According to the flyer, the data centre would provide “increased speed of digital access” and “better security of sensitive data” for businesses all over Sydney.
uncertain
centre → accord → Sydney
The flyer featured an artist’s impression of the proposed development, a futuristic facility with an elegant, curved facade and rooftop garden.
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flyer → feature → facade
Bedrossian knew what a data centre was: a US company called AirTrunk had built one across the other side of the business park, in 2020.
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company → know → 2020
That building was boxy, windowless and irremediably ugly, and it made a constant humming noise like a meteor-sized fridge.
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it → make → fridge
But Goodman’s data centre, which would be three storeys tall, was meant to be just four metres from the community garden nursery and 16 metres from Bedrossian’s fence.
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which → mean → fence
The facility would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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facility → run → ?
“It certainly seemed very big,” says Bedrossian.
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Bedrossian → seem → ?
Concern began to spread.
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Concern → begin → ?
People began reading about the impacts of data centres in the US.
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People → begin → US
Over the coming months, residents, sporting organisations, dog-walkers, and just about anyone else who loved the suburb began meeting, informally, to consider their options.
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who → come → options
Paul Trainor, who has lived in Lane Cove for 25 years, was one of them.
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who → live → them
“At that stage, we didn’t have much detail about Goodman’s proposal,” he says.
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he → have → proposal
By early 2026, however, Goodman had begun lodging more documents.
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Goodman → begin → documents
It became apparent, for example, that the data centre would rely for back-up power on 49 diesel generators, requiring the storage of more than one million litres of diesel fuel on site.
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centre → become → site
It also emerged, thanks to the local newspaper, that Goodman wasn’t the only developer eyeing off the site, and that were four more data centres in the pipeline.
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that → emerge → pipeline
“That’s when we got really scared,” says mother of two, Sasha Titchkosky.
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mother → ’ → two
Residents formed an action group, called Lane Cove Responsible Planning (LCRP), with Titchkosky as its spokesperson.
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Residents → form → spokesperson
It became clear to the group that, if the projects were approved, their suburb could, within five years, be host to a whole data-centre cluster.
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suburb → become → cluster
“They’d use almost 400 megawatts, which is enough to power 200,000 homes,” says Titchkosky.
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Titchkosky → use → homes
The buildings, up to 34 metres tall, would sprawl across the site, looming over the streets and bushland like a crippled space station, pulsing with heat and light.
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buildings → sprawl → heat
But Goodman couldn’t have known what the locals had in store.
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locals → know → store
Over the next six months, LCRP would mount a formidable community campaign, an all-hands insurgency against Australia’s largest industrial property developer.
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LCRP → mount → developer
“We had so many moments where we felt it was inevitable,” says Titchkosky.
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Titchkosky → have → moments
“It seemed pretty hard to stop it, but we were committed to doing everything we could to protect our community.
uncertain
we → seem → community
Data centres are sometimes called AI factories, insofar as they store and process all the information that makes the digital age possible.
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age → call → information
Notwithstanding the recent suggestion from tech chiefs that AI could make humans extinct within the next decade, demand for the technology is still surging and, along with it, the need for more data centres.
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demand → make → centres
At last count, Australia had 296 of them, with another 90 in the pipeline.
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Australia → have → pipeline
…and 162 more, not listed.
The Aporia
