From the veranda on his bush block, Denver Kanowski has watched resources companies come and go from rural Queensland for 70 years. The home cost him $800, and lets him live how he likes, in nature. It’s also in the middle of a gasfield, not far from the Linc Energy contamination site, down the road from a coalmine and three gas power plants.
Last month came the biggest scheme yet, a $31bn datacentre to power Claude, the large language model developed by global AI giant Anthropic. If built, Australia’s largest datacentre would be about 15 minutes’ drive away from Kanowski’s home, outside Kogan, near Dalby, about 180km west of Brisbane. In a community that has seen the boom and bust of coal seam gas, the response from many has been the same as Kanowski’s: once bitten, twice shy.
Anthropic’s project is to be built on a 725-hectare plot of land now occupied by a 24,000 head feedlot, surrounded by gas wells. According to Singapore-based developer Zerra DC, its cooling system will be far less water intensive than most existing datacentres’, generating about the same demand as an average shopping centre. But like all AI, it will require an enormous amount of energy.
The Western Downs datacentre will require a peak power capacity equal to about a quarter of total state energy demand, 2.16GW. It would also employ thousands during construction, with about 1,400 long-term jobs, according to the company. The proposal was made public just last month.
Within days, Dalby travel agent Mordechai Winters had made up his mind: he didn’t want it. You know, it’s very disappointing that the council and also the government would consider it,” he says. Issues like energy demand, noise and poor siting have driven a massive backlash against datacentres in the United States.
Three-quarters of Americans now oppose them, and more than 500 counties have imposed a ban. At least thousands have a similar view in Australia. A petition that Winters helped to launch has been signed by more than 21,500 people – mostly from the area – in just a few weeks, he says. nefits are exaggerated and will trigger the same boom-bust cycle as gas.
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