Queensland's $30 billion data centre project sparks excitement and concern

A massive data centre project in Queensland's Western Downs has sparked both excitement and concern among locals and experts. The Western Downs Digital Park (WDDP), set to be the largest data centre project in Australia, has secured a long-term lease with artificial intelligence giant Anthropic to host its Claude AI system.

What is the Western Downs Digital Park?

The WDDP will be located on a 725.5-hectare plot on Dalby Kogan Road in the western Queensland suburb of Kogan, approximately 250 kilometres north-west of Brisbane. Developer Zerra DC has invested $30 billion in the project, which is expected to take four to six years to complete.

Despite the lengthy construction timeline, Anthropic plans to start using Building One at the centre in 2027, pending Foreign Investment Review Board approval.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli on the project

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the data centre investment would drive down energy costs for consumers and bring jobs to the community.

Water consumption

Zerra DC claims the data centre will be 100 per cent air cooled, significantly reducing water consumption. The first building, or Phase 1 of the project, will require 21,000 litres of water a day once fully operational, totalling 7.7 million litres per year.

"That's nothing," Ian Wright, associate professor in environment science at Western Sydney University said. "That's absolutely tiny."

Ian Wright said the water consumption would be similar to that of a small shopping mall.

"I would say that was a fraction of what I was expecting. I expected it would need more like 21,000 litres in a matter of minutes."

For the entire campus of four buildings, Zerra DC estimates a total of 25.5 million litres of water would be required per year once fully operational. However, the company claims it will meet 40 per cent of its daily water demands through on-site water recycling, reducing the actual outside water requirement to around 13,000 litres a day.

Air cooling and power concerns

The air-cooling set-up will use a heat-rejection system with closed-loop water circulation within the data centre, rejecting heat to the outside air rather than through evaporation. Ian Wright said if the system works, it would be "brilliant", but he had concerns.

"That would be a game changer and that goes against my knowledge of what happens around the world," he said. "I suppose there's a dubious edge to my voice here — it just sounds too good to be true."

The data centre's peak electrical capacity will be 2.16 GW, with Dr Andreas Helwig, an electro-mechanical engineer, noting that this is extremely large by Australian standards.

"If fully built out and operating at typical hyperscale utilisation, it would draw around 43–47 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy per day," he said.

Jobs and economic impact

The data centre is expected to provide around 1,400 jobs directly at the facility once fully operational, with ongoing roles in various fields including mechanical, electrical, controls, security, and ICT information.

During construction, a further 1,500 on-site construction workers will be required, with indirect jobs also expected to arise both during construction and ongoing at the facility.