At a glance
HyperDC Pty Ltd has applied to Victoria's planning minister to build a data centre at 715 Ballan Road, Moorabool, about 12 kilometres north-west of the Geelong CBD.
The campus, called MBL1, is proposed at 400MW on a site of about 39 hectares, Data Center Dynamics reported.
The site sits beside AusNet's Moorabool Terminal Station and the 300MW Victorian Big Battery.
The application was received on 22 September 2026, the day Victoria announced a 150-metre buffer between new data centres and homes.
HyperDC is a new developer with former Villawood Properties acquisitions manager Gerard Adamsons as a director, and MBL1 is its first campus.
HyperDC Pty Ltd has lodged a planning application for a data centre at 715 Ballan Road, Moorabool, in the City of Greater Geelong. The ministerial permits register records application PA2604671, received on 22 September 2026, for the use and development of a data centre, buildings and works, and vegetation removal. Data Center Dynamics reported on 29 September that the campus is proposed at 400MW of IT capacity, the power available to run the servers, on a largely vacant site of 39 hectares.
MBL1 sits beside the Moorabool Terminal Station, a major AusNet substation on the 500kV transmission line west of Geelong, and next to the Victorian Big Battery. RealEstateSource reported on 30 September that the project is speculated to carry an end value of about A$6 billion.
HyperDC is a new name in Australian data centres, and little about it is public. The company describes itself only as a data centre developer, and MBL1 is its first campus. The one person named in connection with it is Gerard Adamsons, a director and formerly acquisitions manager at residential developer Villawood Properties, according to RealEstateSource and Data Center Dynamics. HyperDC has not released further project details, Data Center Dynamics reported, and no investor, customer or operating partner is named on the permit register or in reporting on the project.
The Victorian Big Battery is next door
The Victorian Big Battery, 300MW with 450MWh of storage, was built next to the Moorabool Terminal Station by Neoen and began operating in December 2021. HMC Capital bought it with Neoen's other Victorian assets in a A$950 million deal announced in December 2024, and it now sits in HMC's Illuma Energy platform. A second battery stage is also in the planning system: the same register lists an application received on 19 May 2026 to subdivide land at 555 Ballan Road for the VBB2 battery project.
The MBL1 site last sold publicly in 2018 as farmland, with machinery sheds and hothouse frames on it, and was marketed again in 2024 and 2026, RealEstateSource reported. Data Center Dynamics puts the site about 75 kilometres west of Melbourne.
HyperDC applied through the state's accelerated pathway
The applicant address on the register is Level 9, 5 Queens Road, Melbourne. The application was made under clause 53.22 of the Victorian planning scheme, the significant economic development pathway. It is an accelerated state pathway under which the Minister for Planning decides the application, and public notice and referral requirements still apply.
NEXTDC holds land nearby at Lovely Banks
NEXTDC settled its A$165 million purchase of 169 hectares at Lovely Banks in June. Lovely Banks is also on Geelong's north-west edge, about 13 kilometres from the CBD and beside a high-voltage transmission line.
The ministerial permits register lists nine other data centre applications received since February 2026, and all nine are in metropolitan Melbourne, from South Morang in the north to Laverton North in the west. They include three of the four campuses that entered the planning system between April and July, at Mickleham, Truganina and Campbellfield.
Site | Scale | Status |
|---|---|---|
HyperDC MBL1, 715 Ballan Road, Moorabool | 400MW (reported), 39.65 hectares | Application received 22 September 2026 |
NEXTDC, Lovely Banks | 169 hectares, A$165 million land purchase | Land purchase settled June 2026 |
Source: Victorian ministerial permits register; Data Center Dynamics, 29 September 2026; RealEstateSource, 30 September 2026.
The application arrived the day Victoria set a 150-metre buffer
Premier Ben Carroll released Victoria's Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan on 22 September 2026, the day HyperDC's application was received. The plan will require new data centres to sit at least 150 metres from homes and bring their own renewable energy, pay for the grid upgrades they need, and cool with recycled or non-drinking water. It will also keep new data centres out of residential areas and out of rural areas that cannot support them.
The rules will not be retrospective, the ABC reported: projects already approved, and eight applications before the planning minister at the time, will not have to meet them. Carroll said the planning changes would be made "as soon as possible" and did not set a date. The build across the state is tracked in the directory of data centres in Australia.
What to watch
The planning documents. The register entry does not yet carry HyperDC's application material. The documents should show the number of buildings, the staging of the 400MW and the distance from the nearest homes.
Who backs HyperDC. Any announcement of an investor, a customer or an operating partner for MBL1.
Whether the new rules reach MBL1. HyperDC's application was received on the day the plan was announced. Whether it counts among the eight applications exempt from the new rules will decide if the 150-metre buffer and the own-power rule apply to it.
The state election. Victorians vote on 28 November 2026, and applications on this pathway are decided by whichever minister holds the planning portfolio.