The City of Ballarat has pushed for a data centre freeze, amid anxiety about a proposed facility in Miners Rest.
What happened? During September’s City of Ballarat council meeting, council voted unanimously to write to the Victorian Government demanding a moratorium on new data centres across the state until a proper planning and sustainability framework exists.
The motion was brought forward by Councillor Jim Rinaldi.
The background: In July, Resi Ventures and X2M announced intentions to build a data centre in Miners Rest, 10 kilometres outside of central Ballarat, on an old quarry site.
The announcement was met with trepidation from locals regarding water, power and environmental impacts.
Local anxiety: Several queries were read out during public question time, asking where the data centre's water, power and fire protection would come from. The answer was the same: there's no application yet, so nobody knows.
What people said: City of Ballarat CEO Evan Kind acknowledged the prospect of the centre being built felt “incredibly unsettling for the community”, but said there is currently an information gap.
“At present there is no planning application for a data centre at the quarry site,” King said, adding that any application would likely bypass council and go “straight to the state government through their development facilitation program”.
Councillor Rinaldi moved that council write to Premier Ben Carroll, and other relevant ministers, seeking a moratorium on new data centres and expansions “until a comprehensive Victorian data centre planning and sustainability framework is established”.
At other levels: AI and the data centres that power it have been a hot topic in 2026.
In March of this year, the Australian Government outlined initial Expectations of Data Centres and AI Infrastructure.
In July, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans to legislate these AI and data centre standards during a speech at the University of Sydney.
In August, the National Cabinet affirmed a commitment to build unified regulations.
The legislation is expected to be introduced to parliament in 2027.
On September 22, the Victorian Government released the Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan, laying out expectations around land and water use, and mandated distance from residential areas.
🌏The bigger picture: In Australia, the amount of data centres has doubled. There are currently 165 data centres, with 225 more proposed throughout the country.
Johanna Lim, from the United States Studies Centre, told the Gippsland Monitor data centres will become “the backbone of the digital economy”.
“They underpin our digital lives. They allow us to access the cloud, internet, banking apps, healthcare systems, transportation and use AI tools like Chat GPT and Gemini.”
What next? Councillor Jay Morisson said he would take the position to the Municipal Association of Victoria conference in October, where multiple councils have raised the same item.
City of Ballarat Mayor Tracey Hargreaves told the Brolga the council recognises the important role data centres play in supporting VIctoria’s digital economy, however “the scale of these developments… necessitates careful planning” to ensure benefits are “balanced with environmental sustainability and community wellbeing”.
“The City of Ballarat believes that the increasing number of data centre proposals emerging across Victoria warrants a coordinated, transparent and sustainable approach to ensure future development is appropriately planned and delivers clear benefits to local communities”.