This $1.1b data centre mirrors Melbourne’s much wider conflict
Residents in Clyde North, Melbourne, are expressing frustration over a lack of transparency regarding a proposed $1.1 billion data centre. The local council has restricted access to planning documents, fueling community opposition to the massive infrastructure project.
Why it matters
It highlights the growing tension between rapid digital infrastructure expansion and local community rights to information and urban planning oversight.
From Melbourne’s south-east, to its west and north - community complaints about data centres, and their development, are growing.
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Share A A A The large, empty block a few streets from Michael McKenzie Hocking’s house has been vacant for years. On Thursday, a small herd of cows grazed on its long grass.
The only public sign that a $1.1 billion data centre could soon be built here was recent graffiti reading: “Data centres are cooked”. But that got taken down almost immediately.
“I don’t remember ever seeing a formal sign put up there saying that a data centre was proposed,” says McKenzie Hocking – despite the fact the huge data centre will, if approved, entirely transform the quiet south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Clyde North.
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