4,607 MWfrom the 30 active projects that report a figure
Boundaries: Natural Earth
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Australia has 162 data centers operating and about 90 more in the pipeline, according to the industry group Data Centres Australia. The biggest proposal is NEXTDC's S7 campus at Eastern Creek in Sydney's western suburbs: nine buildings with 612 megawatts of power, with OpenAI signed up to use part of it. NEXTDC filed the plans in March; like every large project in New South Wales, it will be decided by the state government, not the local council.
The sharpest local fight was in Lane Cove West, where Goodman Group proposed Project Mars at 12 Mars Road, a 90-megawatt data center running around the clock about 160 meters from a primary school. It drew 374 submissions, 358 of them objections, and the New South Wales planning portal now lists it as withdrawn. In neighboring Macquarie Park, where five data centers operate and six more are proposed, Ryde Mayor Trenton Brown said: "Local councils were effectively cut out of the planning process."
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Two other proposals were pulled this year after residents objected. GreenSquareDC withdrew its 120-megawatt Hazelmere data center near Perth on May 14, after almost 1,900 public submissions and a City of Swan staff report recommending refusal. MAK Urban Group withdrew its data center in North Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, in June, after a petition with more than 730 signatures.
On August 26, 2026, the federal, state and territory governments agreed on mandatory national standards that will require large data centers to add at least as much energy to the grid as they draw and to limit their water use. The legislation is due in early 2027.
Withdrawn by the developer Developer withdrew its application after local opposition.
May 2026
120 MW
Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.