The AI giant Anthropic, the developer behind the large language model Claude, has done a deal to lease its first Australian datacentre in western Queensland.
The site comprises 725.5 hectares of freehold land formally described as Lot 125 on DY316. It is now partially used for rural purposes and contains the approved Wambo feedlot.
The site is 37km north-west of Dalby and benefits from direct frontage to Dalby-Kogan Grahams roads. The area has a mix of rural, energy and industrial infrastructure uses, including power stations, solar generation, substations, transmission infrastructure and gas infrastructure. These attributes, together with the site’s significant land area and separation from urban communities, support its suitability for a large-scale Research and Technology Industry.
The development will comprise four large Research and Technology Industry buildings delivered across four stages, supported by customer-owned switching stations, substations, battery-backed power conditioning systems, access control infrastructure, internal roads, parking, construction laydown areas and a temporary workers’ village. Power supply has been planned to leverage the site’s proximity to the Braemar generation hub and the broader Queensland transmission network. The project also adopts a water strategy that avoids reliance on town water infrastructure and prioritises air-cooled technology, on-site supply options, rainwater harvesting and treated wastewater reuse to reduce demand on primary water sources.
Premier David Crisafulli announced the decision in parliament on Wednesday.
The proposed Western Downs Digital Park, to be built by Singapore-based Zerra DC, will be located near Dalby, northwest of Toowoomba and will connect to the existing Braemar power station. It is planned to open next year and will be worth a reported $31.9bn.
Crisafulli told parliament that he met with Anthropic during a recent trade mission and had outlined “why Queensland was the place to invest with energy security and a streamlined approval process.”
“To have secured Anthropic’s first major investment in Australia is a massive show of confidence in Queensland,” he said.
“It’s a major win that will deliver more jobs and put more energy into Queensland’s grid.”
Queensland, along with the Northern Territory, rejected a Commonwealth push in July to make new AI centres use renewable energy. The state government claims to have won a carve-out from a national deal allowing it to use the state’s coal generators to power them.
Crisafulli said on Wednesday that prime minister Anthony Albanese had made a “commonsense decision” to “allow Queensland to chart its own path for power supply”.
“[Datacentre development] must add energy generation to the grid and drive down power prices for Queenslanders,” he said.
“It must protect local water supplies, and it must respect the communities where these centers go … we’ll do it in the right locations, and we’ll do it in the right way. Communities will have a say, just as they now do for projects like wind, solar, and batteries”.
The Albanese government is currently weighing up a proposal to give AI companies access to Australian creatives’ works by default – a deal independent senator David Pocock said would throw creatives “under the bus” in pursuit of datacentre funding.
Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei on Tuesday reiterated his call for a slowdown of AI development amid rising concern over AI.
