Data CentresClare BurnettWed 05 Aug 26
AirTrunk Plots Data Centre Campus on $350m North Melbourne Site
Blackstone-owned AirTrunk has put forward plans for a data centre campus on the rural site in north of Melbourne it paid $350 million to acquire.
The data centre developer and operator is planning a hyperscale data centre for site at 45 Donnybrook Road, Mickleham, 45km from the CBD.
Airtrunk bought the 67.10ha site in the Hume City Council area earlier this year from the McMullin family, members of an established business group based in Melbourne.
They acquired the site in 2019 for $33 million, according to Cotality’s RP Data.
AirTrunk has now filed a permit application to the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning via the Development Facilitation Program pathway.
According to that plan, it wants to redevelop the currently vacant, former pastoral land into a hyperscale data centre campus.
AirTrunk is seeking a planning scheme amendment to allow it to be used for a utility installation.
“Demand is constantly growing for these types of facilities as the world continues to increase its operation in the digital and AI space,” its planning report said.
Seven buildings are proposed, with data halls on all floors and fuel storage rooms on the ground floor, as well as a technical space for customers who have their equipment in the data halls.
The buildings would rise to four storeys with a total gross floor area of 935,730sq m.
Security and networks operations centre offices are also included in the plans, which also have parking for 784 cars.
In an attempt to offset the loss of native vegetation on the site, Airtrunk would introduce a 4.87ha conservation reserve and a 4.26ha tree reserve.
The site is on a major arterial road close to the Merrifield Employment Precinct, and emerging employment area close to the Merrifield town centre.
South of the development area is 1005 Hume Freeway, a 54ha site owned by Ausnet which has been earmarked for a major terminal station.
The Donnybrook Road parcel is also close to quarantine facilities and the Melbourne Centre for National Resilience facilities.
But the data centre, and others in the area, have already faced controversy, with local residents accusing the government of allowing north Melbourne to become a “dumping ground” for data centres” as concerns rise about the facilities’ water and energy requirements.
Data demand is escalating—across the country there are 162 data centres, including 60 in New South Wales and 30 in Victoria.
Victoria is moving fast. The state greenlit NextDC’s $2-billion Port Melbourne project earlier this year, Stockland has proposed a project in Brooklyn, and Zerra DC is plotting a centre at the former Ford factory site at Campbellfield.
According to data centre intelligence company DC Byte, there are 90 data centers in the pipeline, and trending towards large-scale facilities above 100MW.
AirTrunk’s Mickleham permit application said that cloud adoption and AI had rapidly increased demand, making data centres “vital to Victoria’s economic growth” and to remain globally and nationally competitive.
