At a glance
GreenSquareDC has applied to turn a former petroleum depot at Spotswood, in Melbourne's inner west, into a 240MW data centre for cloud and AI workloads.
The campus would equal about 40 per cent of Melbourne's live data centre capacity, on Fitch figures.
Hobsons Bay council, which covers Spotswood, asked its officers on 28 July to identify brownfield or contaminated land suited to data centres.
Partners Group committed up to A$1.2 billion in March 2025 to build an Australian platform on GreenSquareDC, which is targeting operation at Spotswood in 2027.
The application sits with the Department of Transport and Planning and has not been decided.
GreenSquareDC files a 240MW campus for a former Spotswood fuel depot
GreenSquareDC has filed an application with Victoria's Department of Transport and Planning to build a 240MW data centre at 44 to 76 Simcock Avenue, Spotswood, across three storeys, with the company targeting operation in 2027. GreenSquareDC describes the site as high-efficiency infrastructure for cloud and AI-driven workloads. The operator is owned by Partners Group, which committed up to A$1.2 billion in March 2025 to build an Australian platform on it. Spotswood is its first Melbourne site, at more than double the 96MW endorsed for stage two of SYD1 in western Sydney in April.
Where these buildings should sit is the question running through Victoria's state-by-state policy position and the water and energy numbers behind the moratorium case. Fitch analysis put Melbourne at 580MW of live data centre capacity and 799MW in planning. At 240MW, Spotswood is a single site worth about 40 per cent of that live capacity. Hobsons Bay council, which covers Spotswood, gave its own answer on 28 July, eight days before the campus was reported. Council asked its officers to identify brownfield or contaminated land in the municipality that suits data centre development, and the Simcock Avenue site last operated as a petroleum depot.
Hobsons Bay asked its officers to find brownfield land for data centres
Notice of Motion No 1284 asks officers to prepare a report on "the increasing number of data centre developments proposed across Melbourne's western region and the implications for Hobsons Bay", to assess "potential impacts of data centres located adjacent to, or in close proximity to, residential areas", and to identify "industrial land within Hobsons Bay that may be strategically suited to future data centre developments, including brownfield or contaminated land", according to the council's published resolutions for the 28 July meeting.
Councillor Kristin Bishop, who moved the motion, said she was "not arguing for a blanket ban" on data centres and wanted clear expectations about where and how this development should occur. Star Weekly reported the motion carried unanimously, that residents had raised concerns about the Simcock Avenue proposal, and that the report will also cover the state's fast-track approval process and the council's own advocacy role. The report has no date attached and returns to a future council meeting.
Simcock Avenue carried Mobil's Spotswood petroleum terminal
Data Center Dynamics reports that the Simcock Avenue land previously operated as a petrochemical storage depot, and that the real estate firm Time and Place was seeking to acquire it from Mobil around 2020. Real Estate Source described the 8.8-hectare former Mobil Spotswood Terminal in June 2021 as bought by Time and Place for a business park, on the block adjoining 20 to 42 Simcock Avenue.
Serviced industrial land across Melbourne's west has repriced steeply, a pattern set out in the industrial land squeeze, and a fuel terminal block carries a contamination history that narrows what else can go on it. Spotswood sits inside an established industrial precinct with rail, freeway and fibre already run to it.
Melbourne applications reported since April run from Mickleham to Clyde North
Site and proponent | Scale | Status |
|---|---|---|
44-76 Simcock Avenue, Spotswood, GreenSquareDC | 240MW across three storeys | With the Department of Transport and Planning |
72-76 Cherry Lane, Laverton North, Stockland | 250MW across two buildings | Planning permit application, filed May 2026 |
45 Donnybrook Road, Mickleham, AirTrunk reported as buyer | Seven parcels, about A$4 billion reported | Received 1 July, state-assessed |
433 Mount Atkinson Road, Truganina, Goodman | Three two-storey buildings | Lodged July 2026 |
300-340 Barry Road, Campbellfield, Zerra DC | Six buildings on the former Ford plant | Filed April 2026 |
585 Berwick-Cranbourne Road, Clyde North, unnamed proponent | Up to A$1.12 billion | With the City of Casey |
Source: Victorian planning registers, W.Media, Data Center Dynamics, August 2026.
Four of these campuses were collated in July at Mickleham, Truganina, Campbellfield and Clyde North. Of the sites in the table, Campbellfield and Spotswood sit on land that carried heavy industry, the former Ford plant and the fuel terminal. The other four run from Mickleham in the north to Clyde North in the south east, with Laverton North and Truganina inside the established Melbourne cluster west of the city. Victoria's Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan puts the state's pipeline of projects at more than A$25 billion.
GreenSquareDC puts the Spotswood design at a water use effectiveness near 0.1
GreenSquareDC's published figures for the site are a 220kV supply, a power usage effectiveness below 1.24 and a water use effectiveness of about 0.1 litres per kilowatt-hour. Data Center Dynamics reports a closed-loop hybrid cooling system that recirculates water and operates water free for most of the year. Those figures are design targets for an unbuilt campus, and water and electricity consumption are both named in the council's report brief.
Ramboll's Australian liquid cooling analysis shows a closed-loop design drawing less water than an evaporative system and spending more power to reject heat. AWS has contracted recycled water for its Melton campus on the supply side of the same question.
What to watch
The assessment pathway. The application sits with the Department of Transport and Planning. Victoria's Development Facilitation Program is the accelerated state pathway for significant economic projects, under which the planning minister decides directly, and it is one of two routes Melbourne data centre applications have taken this year. The other is an ordinary planning permit application, which is the route Stockland took at Laverton North. Which one Spotswood follows has not been published.
The council report. Officers will bring the brownfield land assessment back to a future meeting, naming the industrial parcels in Hobsons Bay that suit this class of development. The same report covers the fast-track pathway and what advocacy role the council has where the state decides.
The Victorian election. Victorians go to the polls on 28 November 2026. Whoever holds the planning portfolio at the time decides applications running under the state pathway.
The water numbers. GreenSquareDC has published a power usage effectiveness below 1.24 and a water use effectiveness near 0.1 for Spotswood. Operators report water on different bases across the certified Australian directory, and the Hobsons Bay brief names water and electricity consumption among the impacts its officers will assess.