wWest Footscray resident Sean Brown takes his 19-month-old boy to the park, their walk passing a grand new building billed as “Australia’s largest hyperscale AI factory”, a datacenter called M3.
He hates it: the construction noise from its constant expansion, the looming towers and insistent background roar, the exhaust billowing from the growing array of diesel generators that might help power the servers inside.
And she’s worried about what it portends for her young child’s future.
“He’s growing up — neurologically, pulmonaryly, physically — in the shadow of a facility whose cumulative environmental impact has never been assessed,” says Brown.
“They’re building something that is, frankly, terrible for the community. There’s no upside to it and it’s getting worse.”
The center has already grown manifold, catering to the endless appetite of this era of digital services and generic AI. By the end of 2027, if the fast-track plan is approved by the Victorian Government, the datacentre, located less than 10km from the Melbourne CBD, will double again in size to cover 10 hectares, draw 225MW of power and run 24/7.
Diesel generators at the site are reportedly increasing from 40 today to 100 upon completion.
Eight months ago, NextDC chief executive Craig Scroggie posted a video of the M3 site on linkedin and said that the speed and scale of its expansion was “astonishing”.
“We are building Australia’s largest hyperscale AI factory, aimed at a new AI era of accelerated computing,” he wrote. “This is how we build Australia’s digital future: at speed, scale, sovereign, sustainable and secure.”
Australia is under pressure to compete in the growing datacenter industry amid promises of an AI boom. The new investment is seen as an important down payment for the country’s economic future.
But those living closest to these huge new data halls feel that the peace of their neighborhoods is being sacrificed on the altar of progress.
Guardian Australia spoke to residents in three states about their concerns, which are emblematic of the growing opposition to these developments across the country. Those living closest to the datacenters argue that they should be moved further away from residential areas in the country’s largest cities.
“The M3 datacenter is really an inappropriate location for a very intensive industrial building,” says Brown. “It’s right next to people’s houses.”
Brown says the original zoning decisions did not take into account the sheer scale of the datacenter.
He works in the technical field, and understands the need for datacenters. But he argues that the datacenter boom needs to be better planned.
“It seems like they just went: ‘Let’s max it out and don’t even consider the impact,'” he said.
A spokesperson for NextDC says the project is being delivered in accordance with local and state government processes and regulatory requirements, and has processes in place to “manage and respond to feedback”.
Maribyrnong Local Council has expressed its opposition to the expansion, but is now awaiting planning approval from the Victorian Government.
Victorian Planning Minister spokeswoman Sonia Kilkenny said the proposal to expand the datacentre was under consideration and it would be inappropriate to comment further.
The council was ‘sidelined’
A proposal for a new 90MW datacentre, called Project Mars, near the Lane Cove River, 9km from the Sydney CBD, is now being considered by the NSW Government. It would be the fourth in the region: datacenters take up 40% of the local industrial areas.
The council argues that the approximately 22,000 square metre, three-storey center exceeds height limits and would be visually prominent next to bushland and residential areas.
Local resident Daniel Bolger says it will be next to what he calls “the lungs of Lane Cove: Blackman Park”.
It used to be a tip, but it was converted into a park and sports centre, used by “50% of the suburb” every weekend, he says.
“(Now) they’re going to put a datacenter right next to it.”
He says the council has been sidelined, and there are concerns in the community about the proximity of the centers being developed to schools and the lack of pure electricity.
“It’s a cluster issue,” Bolger says.
NSW Planning Minister, Paul Scully says the public is encouraged to have their say during the consultation and a full merit-based assessment, including an assessment of energy needs, will be carried out before a decision is made.
“Datacenters are a critical part of the infrastructure and digital architecture of modern economies,” he says.
The developer, Goodman Properties, did not respond to a request for comment.
‘It’s huge’
In Hazelmere, 15km east of Perth in Western Australia, community opposition is growing to a planned 15,000-square-metre, three-storey, up to 120 MW datacentre.
“It’s huge. Bigger than a Bunnings warehouse,” says Kate Herren, a local resident and fundraising co-ordinator for environmental group Trillion Trees Australia.
“The space we feel is completely unsuitable for a proposal of (this) size and scale.”
Walter McGuire, chairman of the Bibul Ngarma Aboriginal Association, says the Noongar people have a role and responsibility in looking after the Mandoon Bilya (Helena River).
“Huge datacenters are in industrial areas, not on the banks of our rivers and wetlands,” he says.
“[It’s]a culturally important river, and there are wetlands around it… so we have serious concerns about its impact on the river and the surrounding ecosystem.”
The proposal is now before the council. A spokesperson for the City of Swan said he was unable to comment.
A spokesperson for GreenSquareDC, the company behind the project, said it was in an established industrial area with major transport and power infrastructure.
“We clearly understand there is interest in this proposal given its proximity to existing businesses and the local school,” the spokesperson says. “These views are taken seriously, and GreenSquare is committed to engaging constructively throughout the planning process.”
‘Critical infrastructure’ in industrial areas
Chief Executive of Data Centers Australia, Belinda Dennett, says the industry is aware that building these centers could face disruption “particularly where industrial land meets residential areas”, but says developers meet strict environmental and building standards, and were trying to minimize disruption.
She says Australia has a “significant opportunity” to benefit from datacenter investment through new businesses and jobs.
“These benefits will also flow to local communities and neighboring datacenters.”
On Friday, he told a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the sector that if Australia does not develop its own AI infrastructure, it will become “an importer of someone else’s technology, with no Australian culture, values or laws”.
The choice, she said: “We make it here and we have some say (and) control over what it looks like”.
