Queensland's data center story changed in August 2026, when Singapore-based developer Zerra DC filed plans for what would be Australia's largest data center: the Western Downs Digital Park, a 2.16-gigawatt campus on a 725-hectare former cattle feedlot near Dalby, about 250 kilometers northwest of Brisbane. The developer says it would connect directly to the high-voltage grid at the nearby Braemar substation and could take four to six years to build. On September 16, 2026, the state government told Parliament that Anthropic had signed a lease to use part of the site to run its Claude system, starting in 2027, pending federal foreign-investment approval.
Water is the question locals raise first. The development application says construction would need about 522,000 liters a day; Zerra DC says the finished campus would draw 25.5 million liters a year, mostly from rainwater and recycling, with groundwater only as a last resort. Ian Wright, an environmental scientist at Western Sydney University, told the ABC the numbers sounded "too good to be true" but added, "it looks like they've done their homework." Toowoomba Regional Council has passed a motion to keep data centers away from drinking-water sources.
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The bigger fight is over power. Liza Balmain of the anti-gas group Save Our Darling Downs said the community had been "asking for the brakes to be put on," and is "deeply concerned" the campus could run on gas-fired power. The Climate Council's Amanda McKenzie said it could use three times the power of Brisbane's 1.4 million residents and push wholesale prices up by at least 13%. Premier David Crisafulli called the project "a major win" that would create jobs and lower power prices; the federal government wants new data centers tied to new renewable power, which Queensland has refused.
Brisbane's only tracked data centers are NEXTDC's B1 and B2 and its Sunshine Coast site, all far smaller than the proposed Western Downs project. What happens next: the Western Downs Regional Council is assessing Zerra DC's application, a process the ABC reported could take years; the Foreign Investment Review Board must approve Anthropic's lease; and Canberra has pledged national data center rules for early 2027.
Projects not tied to an area
Sites whose records name no county. Everything else is on the pages listed above.
Queensland3
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEXTDC B2 BrisbaneQLD | NEXTDC | Approved | 6 MW | |
| NEXTDC B1 BrisbaneQLD | NEXTDC | 2.25 MW | Source off site ↗ | |
| NEXTDC SC1 Sunshine CoastQLD | NEXTDC | 1 MW | Source off site ↗ |
Where this comes from
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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.