Inside the ‘boom’ threatening to send bills through the roof for Aussies like Sharnnie

Exclusive: Sean Brown, Marianna Chlebek and Sharnnie Licciardo live hundreds of kilometres apart, but they’re all facing the same threat: data centres.

More than 160 of the resource-guzzling tech facilities are already up and running across Australia and another 90 are on the way, creeping ever closer to the backyards of Aussies who don’t want to share a post code with a data centre.

Now those Aussies are pushing back.

Born and raised in Southport, on the Gold Coast, 27-year-old Licciardo was horrified when she discovered digital infrastructure company NextDC wants to build a mid-size data centre on her doorstep.

If the proposed centre goes ahead, it could have a significant environmental toll and send Australians’ bills through the roof.

Data centres’ energy use could triple by 2030, and make power prices surge by up to 26 per cent in NSW and 23 per cent in Victoria by 2035, according to a new Climate Council report.

“I’m going to have to struggle with energy bills, water bills,” Licciardo told nine.com.au.

Read more

Australia may buckle under data centre boom - unless it does two things

“It made me want to think about leaving the Gold Coast.”

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Skipper at mleach@nine.com.au

It estimated data centres will also gulp up to 17 gigalitres of water over the next five years, with some individual data centres applying to use up to 40 million litres daily.

That’s equivalent to about 16 Olympic swimming pools.

The federal government expects data centres to agree to minimise water use and support the energy transition to renewables, but these agreements are not legally binding. 

It’s no wonder young Aussies like Licciardo are nervous.

She started an online petition to halt plans for the Southport data centre.

“This is serious, this is happening in our backyard, and I want to try and fight against it for future generations,” Licciardo said.

Nearly 900km south, in Sydney’s Lane Cove West, Chlebek and her neighbours are fighting the same fight and making progress.

Goodman Group plans to build a hyperscale data centre near local homes, a park, a school, and an existing AirTrunk data centre that has already been approved for a major expansion. Locals aren’t impressed.

“We’ve been going through 18 months of roadworks and upgrades of the water infrastructure for the existing data centre,” Stefano, who asked not to have his surname published, told nine.com.au.

Chlebek claimed the existing data centre causes noise issues and pollution; she doesn’t want those negative impacts doubled.

“We are not opposing data centres, we understand that the world is evolving and technology is needed, and we don’t want Australia to be left behind,” Chlebek told nine.com.au.

“The problem is that consultation was not really done with residents.”

Locals started a petition opposing the new data centre, which now has more than 1300 signatures, and won Lane Cove Council to their side.

In March, council endorsed a submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Data Centres, which was established in January.

The following month, council unanimously adopted a notice of motion focused on protecting bushland and local infrastructure during the development of data centres, including a call for greater local involvement in planning decisions.

But council “doesn’t have any power to make a decision”, Stefano said.

That power lies with state and federal governments.

Another 900km south-west, Sean Brown and his wife, Warisa, have learned that the hard way while living in the shadow of a NextDC data centre in Footscray, Melbourne.

The hyperscale AI factory is full of diesel generators and emits constant noise and fumes, Warisa told nine.com.au, and it’s about to get bigger.

NextDC has announced expansion plans which, if approved by the Victorian government, will see the data centre spread over 10 hectares of land by late 2027.

Locals have been losing sleep over it for months.

“It’s really affected us personally – mentally, emotionally, very physically – while trying to raise our son,” Warisa said.

She and Brown, who share a young son, understand Australia’s need for data centres but feel not enough consideration is being given to how these facilities will affect local communities now and in the future.

Warisa started a petition to halt the expansion, which has more than 2000 signatures.

Brown wrote and submitted an opposition document to the Victoria Department of Transport and Planning.

They got the attention of Footscray Labour MP Katie Hall and a representative for Victorian planning minister Sonia Kilkenny, but planning for the expansion is still underway.

Read more

Is Australia careening towards recession? The RBA just gave its take

Warisa is frustrated her son will grow up in the shadow of a giant data centre while the people who make decisions about where to build these facilities will never wake up to the smell of diesel fumes or the hum of servers.

“No one seems to be going into bat for us,” Brown told nine.com.au.

“I think there is a systemic problem here, and I don’t think our regulations and our systems are built to handle this.”

He said there’s serious risk “for a lot of harm to be done to a lot of people” if federal and state governments don’t take a firmer stance on where and how data centres should be built in Australia, especially when they border residential areas.

Every month, more petitions are started calling for greater community consultation before approving building or expansion plans for data centres across the country.

And they’ll keep cropping up until Australia introduces stricter regulations to govern the data centre boom.

“All we ask for is sensible planning, making sure that current communities are protected and the environment is being looked after,” Chlebek said.

“Rather than just laying the red carpet for every single data centre.”