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<\/p>\nDalby, Australia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n The first rainfall in months splashes off the windshield as the mayor of Western Downs Andrew Smith drives to the site of a proposed AI data center behind a cattle feedlot in rural Queensland.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s feeding time and 16,000 cattle are standing under shade sails waiting for a passing truck to shoot grain into their troughs.\n <\/p>\n
\n Agriculture is the biggest employer in this area, 260 kilometers (131 miles) west of Brisbane. But beneath the rich vertosol soils that sustain year-round crops lies a massive gas field that\u2019s also turned the region into an energy hub.\n <\/p>\n
\n Now the AI data center industry has come knocking with a $22 billion proposal from Singaporean developer Zerra DC to build the Western Downs Digital Park, one of Australia\u2019s largest AI data centers, with four buildings each the size of five football fields, and temporary accommodation for 1,500 workers during the construction phase.\n <\/p>\n
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\n The project hasn\u2019t been formally approved. But its first major tenant, US giant Anthropic, has already signed a lease, setting the stage for the company\u2019s Australian debut. Smith says the enthusiastic state government has assured him that the decision will fall to the local council.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s a hefty responsibility in a febrile environment where a growing number of Australians are expressing their opposition to AI, amid an unresolved national debate about the country\u2019s place in the AI boom. American AI giants have turned on the charm, praising the nation\u2019s open spaces, commitment to renewable energy, and trusted position as a partner in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are working towards having significant capacity hosted in Australia,\u201d David Masters, Anthropic\u2019s head of policy for Australia and New Zealand told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
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\n But the Australian government is treading carefully, leading calls for responsible growth \u201cwith guardrails\u201d \u2013 for many reasons, including a recent breach of its healthcare data<\/a> and warnings from within tech companies, including Anthropic, that AI advances are outpacing controls.\n <\/p>\n \n Standing beside the proposed data center site in the Western Downs, Smith says he sees an opportunity to diversify the local economy, create jobs for future generations and give the region\u2019s youth a reason to come home.\n <\/p>\n \n Though he insists a decision hasn\u2019t been made on the data center, the mayor added: \u201cOur role is to look ahead, and if we want to maintain our communities 20 or 30 years ahead, we need to be progressive. And sometimes you do need to be brave.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Back in July, the Australian prime minister vowed to require tech companies to power AI data centers with renewable energy, among a raft of requirements. Within a month, he\u2019d backed down.\n <\/p>\n \n Queensland negotiated an exemption, so that if approved, the Western Downs Digital Park will be directly connected to the grid, running on a mix of energy sources that includes fossil fuels \u2013 coal and natural gas from one of Australia\u2019s largest gas basins, which sits directly below the site.\n <\/p>\n \n More than 6,000 unconventional gas wells pierce the land around this region, extracting gas that\u2019s mostly sold to foreign markets. Accessing coal seam gas requires a process called \u201cde-watering\u201d \u2013 pumping out groundwater to relieve pressure and free the gas.\n <\/p>\n \n And that lies at the heart of AI opposition in this community \u2013 this place is dry.\n <\/p>\n \n Months without significant rain have browned the grass and trees. Rainwater tanks were running low until a downpour last week. Many farmers rely on bore water, but some say their wells have been pumped dry by the gas industry, and their water is now being offered to the developers to help build the AI data center.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat\u2019s stolen water,\u201d thundered grain farmer Bev Newton, who\u2019s engaged in a long-running dispute with a gas company that she believes will end in court as she seeks payment to replace her bore water.\n <\/p>\n \n Bev and Wayne Newton rely on heavy downpours \u2013 when they come \u2013 to fill the family\u2019s water catchment. But they say some of their farmland is sinking, due to subsidence caused by the coal seam gas industry, making future flows difficult to predict.\n <\/p>\n \n Rainwater will be harvested and recycled to sustain workers during operations, Zerra DC says, but Bev Newton points to a shared problem: \u201cNo amount of surface water catchment, be it shed roofs into tanks, works if you don\u2019t have rain that falls from the sky.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Zerra DC says it\u2019ll cool the data center using air-cooling technology, which requires far less water than the evaporative methods that have sparked protests from the US to India to Indonesia.\n <\/p>\n \n But air-cooling technology is more energy-intensive, and residents already fear that the center\u2019s energy demands could strain the network, raise electricity prices, encourage more gas extraction, more de-watering, and potentially more subsidence \u2013 adding more stress to their daily worries about water.\n <\/p>\n \n Zerra DC says the project\u2019s phased development will give it time to work with its customers \u2013 like Anthropic \u2013 to create new power sources, and while demand for power will increase, it says its battery conditioning system will buffer the grid from load spikes to help \u201cstabilise power prices.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Anthropic says it intends to enter into virtual power purchase agreements \u2013 or deals struck with energy providers \u2013 to procure more power for the grid, with a preference for renewables. \u201cThe source for this generation will be new build projects \u2013 but precisely which projects is an ongoing discussion,\u201d said Masters, from Anthropic.\n <\/p>\n \n As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepared to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in late September, a surprise gift arrived to back his case for tougher guardrails on AI.\n <\/p>\n \n An agent from Anthropic\u2019s main rival OpenAI<\/a> had hacked the nation\u2019s healthcare data. It accessed statistics but not personal information, making it a largely benign attack, but one that sent an ominous warning. After receiving a call from Albanese, OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman apologized and vowed to win back Australians\u2019 trust.\n <\/p>\n \n Less than two weeks later, at an Australian parliamentary committee hearing on AI, Anthropic\u2019s international special envoy Jeff Bleich invited the country\u2019s leaders to \u201cstep up to\u201d the choice of AI. \u201cIf Australia takes this opportunity and gets the balance right, it will not simply participate in the AI era; it will shape it,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Anthropic said the proposed center at Western Downs won\u2019t be used to train large language models \u2013 because Australia\u2019s tough copyright laws currently ban it \u2013 but it will answer questions to its Claude AI model.\n <\/p>\n \n So, CNN asked Claude whether the data center application should be approved based on the publicly available information, a petition to the Queensland parliament against the proposal signed by more than 23,000 people,<\/a> and local media reports \u2013 removing any bias that may have crept in due to Anthropic\u2019s involvement in the project.\n <\/p>\n \n Claude\u2019s response: \u201cDon\u2019t decide before public notification and independent technical assessment of water, power, noise, and workforce. Hold the public meeting residents asked for. Be clear about who actually holds the decision if the state steps in.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In a well-lit pub in Dalby, the closest major town to the proposed data center, cutlery clinks as elderly diners relax over a Friday-night meal. A few residents have agreed to meet in a private room to share their concerns, which range from water to power to the \u201cdumbification of humanity.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cJust because big companies over in the US are advocating for AI usage doesn\u2019t mean that we should follow,\u201d said Corey Cora, who works in retail. \u201cMost people in the community won\u2019t even know about this until it\u2019s too late,\u201d added telecoms worker Joel Holtham.\n <\/p>\n \n In the last few weeks, Zerra DC has held pop-up information sessions in the town, population 12,000, to answer residents\u2019 questions. Before retiree Beris Furner dropped in for a chat, he supported the AI expansion.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI thought this is fantastic for Dalby. A great opportunity for future generations coming along for the kids, if they\u2019re that way inclined, to train and work in a place like that,\u201d said Furner.\n <\/p>\n \n But after asking questions of Zerra staff, he now believes the council\u2019s pushing ahead with a speculative proposition without enough community buy-in.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe need a public meeting. It\u2019s such a massive deal for the town,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Mayor Smith said the council wouldn\u2019t be holding public meetings on the matter: \u201cWe always stay away from town hall meetings. It generally doesn\u2019t end up well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Asked if it was also up to the council to provide residents with an alternative source of information, Smith said: \u201cWe need to stay in our lane. We aren\u2019t the experts on data centers. So, for us to be in the public talking about data centers would, I think, be wrong.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe will stay out of the larger data center AI discussion.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The lack of discussion is frustrating some residents who feel their home is being pulled into the competitive AI race between the US<\/a> and China, <\/a>exposing them to a future they don\u2019t necessarily want.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt feels like we\u2019re in a weird sci-fi movie and everything\u2019s just spiraling out of control really quickly,\u201d said Ahri Tallon, from the Darling Downs Environment Council.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re really calling on the government, as many people are around the world, to put a moratorium on AI and data centers and really take the time to work with the community to go through the deep ethical conversations that we need to think about in terms of how much can this technology be potentially for good, but how much could it be for bad?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Others look at the practicalities of sharing their home with a water- and power-hungry industry, and a future where there may be more jobs for their children to come home to, but perhaps another set of challenges that will ultimately drive them away.\n <\/p>\n \n Shay Dougall took a job in workplace health and safety during the construction of a coal seam gas processing facility 20 years ago, married a farmer, and now works as a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Sydney examining the impact of industrialization in rural areas.\n <\/p>\n \n She\u2019s seen firsthand the distress of farmers who\u2019ve strained under the expansion of the gas industry, then renewables, and she now fears the same is happening with data centers.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThose people not only are hosting this industrialization, but they\u2019ve been impacted by the changes to the climate as a result of it. So, it\u2019s just a double whammy,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n In Queensland, the government hasn\u2019t ruled out the approval of new coal-fired power stations to support the expansion of AI in the state \u2013 if tech companies pay for them. The federal member of parliament for the area has praised the possibility of more coal production.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe proposed Western Downs data centre alone has a peak capacity of 2.16 gigawatts, more than a quarter of Queensland\u2019s daily electricity consumption. You cannot run that on renewables alone. The coal is here\u2026\u201d he said in a Facebook post.\n <\/p>\n \n The state government told CNN it\u2019s developing a framework for the approval of data centers that \u201cputs community support at the forefront of decision making.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n As Anthropic prepares to launch an IPO \u2013 potentially valuing the company at $1.5 trillion \u2013 it\u2019s promising to spend tens of millions of dollars in the areas it operates. To that end, it\u2019s hiring a \u201ccommunity engagement manager\u201d in Australia whose role will be to \u201cmake Anthropic a trusted, visible, and valued neighbour.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But the problem in Dalby is that trust dried up with the bore water, and some residents don\u2019t see the same opportunity touted by AI companies, the council and the government \u2013 just more potential problems.\n <\/p>\n \n Rather than being a drain on resources, Smith, the mayor, sees interest from the AI industry as one way to get the water flowing. He wants billions of dollars of investment for new water infrastructure in the region \u2013 and is looking at the state and federal governments, as well as developers \u2013 to get it.\n <\/p>\n \n Smith said he\u2019s having \u201calmost daily\u201d conversations with other data center developers about moving to the area, part of a national shift that\u2019s seeing more development applications lodged for larger facilities, further away from metro regions, according to energy intelligence platform RenewMap.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe know that the one guarantee we have is that data centers are a part of our nation\u2019s future,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThe question here on the Western Downs is do we want them here?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDo we want to take the opportunity that is there, or do we want to give that opportunity to somebody else?\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dalby, Australia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The first rainfall in months splashes off the windshield as the mayor of Western Downs Andrew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-814365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Farmer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/z80-4619.jpg\")
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