AIBRIEF
Syncline Energy's 2.4GW Plumpton proposal would draw more power than Loy Yang A, Victoria's largest power station. A community petition is already calling for full public assessment.
Plumpton, about 30km north-west of Melbourne's CBD, has a 350-hectare paddock next to the Calder Freeway, and a knock on the door from Syncline Energy.
The developer wants to build a mega datacentre on land it says is "just under six times the size of Chadstone" (Melbourne's flagship shopping centre) and that would draw up to 2.4GW of power, more than Loy Yang A, Victoria's largest power station, generates. The first 140 hectares would hold four datacentre buildings; the remaining 60% would stay as open land.
No dirt will move for at least two years while planning and environmental approvals run. Syncline has started door-knocking, and a petition to the Victorian parliament is calling for full public assessment of the proposal's environmental, cultural, social and infrastructure effects, and the cumulative effects of other new datacentres.
A Data Centres Australia report from April, cited by The Guardian, said 30 datacentres already operate in Victoria, with another 30 in the pipeline. Local reporting on the petition drive has highlighted electricity, water and environmental concerns, plus unease about the broader AI build-out, with parallels drawn to sprawling US sites.
Planning submissions are open now. The petition wants cumulative effects counted; Syncline says each project is assessed on its own merits.