Mega datacentre planned for outer Melbourne will be six times bigger than a large shopping centre

More than 3,600 people sign petition for careful assessment of proposed AI hub, now a flashpoint for national debate on datacentre boom Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast For some residents it started with a letter in the mailbox. It was a “friendly introduction from the team behind the Victorian AI hub”. “I am knocking on doors to explain what we have in mind and, most importantly, to listen,” the letter from Syncline Energy stated. “Construction won’t start for at least two-years while we complete the planning and environmental approvals.” For others, news of the project had already spread through social media and news reports, which sounded the alarm before the company had begun its communication efforts. The site for what has been dubbed a mega datacentre in Plumpton, about 30km north-west of the Melbourne CBD, is now an empty paddock next to Melbourne’s renewable energy hub, just off the Calder Freeway. It’s near a fast-growing suburb, transmission lines, and a stone’s throw from where Harry Houdini made what was claimed to be Australia’s first controlled powered flight in 1910. Planes from nearby