<
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/03/ai-datacentres-australia-opposition>
"When West Footscray resident Sean Brown takes his 19-month-old boy to the
park, their walk passes an imposing new building cheerily spruiked as
“Australia’s largest hyperscale AI factory”, a datacentre called M3.
He hates it: the construction noise from its constant expansion, the looming
towers and the insistent background hum, the exhaust from the growing array of
diesel generators that can help power the ranks of servers inside.
And he worries what it represents for his young child’s future.
“He is growing – neurologically, pulmonarily, physically – in the shadow of a
facility whose cumulative environmental impact … has never been assessed,”
Brown says.
“They’re building something which is, frankly, terrible for the community.
There’s no upside to it and it’s just getting worse.”
The centre has already grown several times, fuelling the endless appetite of
this age of digital services and generative AI. By the end of 2027, should
fast-track planning approval be granted by the Victorian government, this
datacentre less than 10km from the Melbourne CBD will have doubled in size
again to cover 10 hectares, drawing 225MW of power and running 24/7.
Diesel generators on the site are reportedly expanding from 40 today to 100 at
completion."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
