Environmental watchdog challenges giant data centre project over noise fears

Victoria’s environmental watchdog has stepped in to object to a planned $1.1 billion data centre on the former Ford factory site in Campbellfield, warning of potential noise impacts and poor site layout.

It is the first time the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has objected to a data centre plan in the midst of the state’s controversial tech infrastructure boom.

The EPA’s challenge is a potentially major blow to developer Zerra DC’s “Project Dune”, a proposal for six enormous data halls across 22 hectares of land on Barry Road.

EPA executive director of strategy Erin Bowen said the authority had lodged a formal objection to the data centre proposal with the Department of Transport and Planning.

“In our role as a referral authority, EPA Victoria has objected to the proposal in its current form,” Bowen said in a statement. “Based on the information provided, we hold concerns over potential noise risks and the cumulative impacts associated with the overall site layout and development.”

However, the ultimate decision on the project sits with Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny, after Zerra DC lodged its application under the state’s fast-tracked Development Facilitation Program. Under the program, the application has gone directly to Kilkenny, bypassing Hume Council and stripping residents of appeal rights at the state planning tribunal.

The EPA intervention follows community anger over the Singaporean-backed project, which when built would consume 336 megawatts of electricity – double Melbourne’s current data centre power draw.

The completed data centre would also store 7 million litres of diesel, and be within 250 metres of homes. The diesel fuel is for use in back-up generators if the power grid fails, as data centres need access to a constant power source.

About 50 people attended a rally opposing the Campbellfield project on Friday. Residents around Barry Road have tied pink ribbons on the front of their homes as part of a campaign against the development.

John Rutherford, of the Broadmeadows Progress Association, attended the rally. He said it was outrageous that the council and residents were being sidelined on the project, which could have significant environmental and social impacts.

“The data centre developers are going straight to the minister, bypassing the council,” Rutherford said. “It’s a very powerful lobby. The government is seeing the potential investment of developers into data centres as the overriding thing, rather than overall transparency and protection of communities as a whole.”

Kilkenny has approved six data centres since 2025 through the fast-tracked Development Facilitation Program.

A Zerra DC spokesperson said the company was taking concerns raised by the EPA and residents seriously and was “in the process of preparing further acoustic information in response to the EPA’s objection”.

“We welcome that feedback and are already working through each point,” the spokesperson said.

Technical assessments submitted with Zerra DC’s application to Kilkenny revealed the site would house 294 massive rooftop chillers.

Chillers are heavy-duty refrigeration units that cool liquid or air in a closed loop. In the Campbellfield project, they will keep thousands of computer servers the data centre will host from overheating.

Acoustic modelling by engineers Aurecon acknowledged these chillers would generate a continuous, low-frequency hum. The report stressed that this would be within acceptable range limits.

Each chiller proposed for the later stages of the development – which are the stages closest to housing – would emit 80 decibels of sound, about the equivalent of a running petrol lawnmower. There would be 250 chiller units on the later data centre halls, stacked across five building roofs, creating a massive cumulative sound load that would rely on eight-metre screening walls to avoid breaching state environmental limits.

While stage one of the data centre meets EPA noise limits, the report concedes that later stages built closer to homes adjacent to the site in Campbellfield would need the acoustic screening on the data centre’s roofs to control noise.

The physical layout of the masterplan for the site shows the first stage is to be built 650 metres from homes. Later stages of the proposal are within 250 metres of homes, and 130 metres of a medical centre.

Noise modelling diagrams submitted by Aurecon as part of the planning application also reveal the visual threat facing residents in the area. Detailed 3D diagrams map out the chillers to be installed on roofs of the six planned data halls, which will operate around the clock.

To prevent the 294 chillers exceeding EPA nighttime noise limits at nearby bedroom windows, the developer’s acoustic consultants conceded there would need to be noise walls built on the roofs of each data centre hall, which are already two to three storeys high. Each noise wall will then add another seven to eight metres.

While the facility will occupy an immense footprint – more than 10 times the size of the MCG’s playing surface – planning reports reveal it will yield minimal long-term employment.

Stage one would require 49 employees to operate, growing to 255 on-site staff when all six stages are completed over a 12-year build, the reports said.

The Ford Broadmeadows Assembly Plant employed almost 5200 people at its peak in the 1980s, mostly from migrant backgrounds and living in surrounding suburbs. It produced more than 600 cars a day.

The factory closed in 2016. The local community had long held hopes the site could be used to generate significant employment, through advanced manufacturing, or as a higher education facility. There are concerns the data centre would dash these aspirations.

Ford’s former chassis plant in Geelong has transformed into an advanced manufacturing hub with the help of significant federal and state support, while Victoria has committed $179 million to turn the former Holden site in Fishermans Bend into an “innovation precinct”.

On Monday night, Melton Council, in the city’s outer west, joined Hume, Brimbank and Maribyrnong councils in calling on the state government to pause new data centre approvals until new regulatory standards are developed to manage their environmental and social impacts. The Victorian Greens have also called for a moratorium.

A report by the Australian Energy Market Operator released on Tuesday showed that data centres would use 13 per cent of the network’s power supply by 2035, up from 3 per cent today.

There are 225 data centres in development around the country this year, compared with 97 in 2025, the report says.

Premier Ben Carroll appointed MP Anthony Carbines to the newly created position of Minister for Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy in a reshuffle early this month.

Carbines has said he would work to attract more data centre investment to the state, while acknowledging the growing community backlash against them.

“It’s at the centre of our prosperity in the future, but we need to do that in a collaborative way with communities,” he said.

Kilkenny’s office was contacted for comment.

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