At a glance
Seven data centre parcels are proposed on a 67-hectare Mickleham site that sold for about A$350 million, with AirTrunk reported as the buyer.
Goodman lodged plans in July for three data centre buildings at 433 Mount Atkinson Road, Truganina, on land acquired from ESR.
Zerra DC filed in April to build six data centres on the former Ford plant at Campbellfield, its first announced Australian project.
A proposal valued at up to A$1.12 billion at Clyde North is the first data centre application the City of Casey has received, and 13 objections are on file.
Victoria's Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan, published in February, values the state's data centre opportunity at more than A$25 billion.
Four campuses entered the planning system between April and July
Four proposed data centre campuses entered Victoria's planning system between April and July. Melbourne's established data centre cluster runs west of the city through Derrimut, Truganina and Deer Park. Three of the four new applications sit away from that cluster: one on the Hume Freeway at Mickleham, one on a former Ford factory at Campbellfield, and one at Clyde North in the City of Casey, 53km south east of the CBD.
The applications extend a Melbourne pipeline that, on Fitch figures, already leads Sydney on planned capacity, 799MW to 384MW. Two of the four carry reported values. W.Media, which collated the applications this week, puts the Mickleham campus at about A$4 billion, and the Clyde North proposal is valued at up to A$1.12 billion in its application. Goodman and Zerra DC have not disclosed capacity or investment figures for their sites.
The applications landed in the five months after Victoria published its Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan, which values the state's data centre opportunity at more than A$25 billion, as we set out in our state-by-state policy comparison.
Site | Proponent | Scale and value | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
45 Donnybrook Road, Mickleham | AirTrunk (reported) | Seven parcels, ~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 | Filed April 2026 |
585 Berwick-Cranbourne Road, Clyde North | Unnamed; Galileo Group land | Up to A$1.12 billion | With City of Casey; 13 objections |
Source: Victorian planning registers, W.Media, Data Center Dynamics, July 2026.
Seven data centre parcels are proposed on a 67-hectare Mickleham site
The Department of Transport and Planning received an application on 1 July for seven data centre parcels at 45 Donnybrook Road, Mickleham, with buildings of four and five storeys. It is being assessed under the Development Facilitation Program, the state pathway under which the planning minister decides directly. The planning documents do not name the operator. Real Estate Source reported the buyer of the 67-hectare site as AirTrunk, in a deal worth about A$350 million with the McMullin family, which paid A$33 million for the land in April 2019 and had planned an industrial estate called Fusion Business Park. AWS examined the same property after it was offered for sale in 2022, seeking a rezoning for a data centre campus. The land repriced from A$33 million to about A$350 million in seven years, the kind of repricing we tracked in our analysis of Australia's industrial land squeeze.
AirTrunk announced a second Melbourne campus on 24 December 2025: more than 354MW, more than A$5 billion of direct investment, and a location described only as Melbourne's north west. Robin Khuda's pitch to Australian super funds in July, the watch item was whether new AirTrunk commitments would land at home or continue to concentrate in India, Japan and Malaysia. Whether Mickleham is the December campus is not confirmed in company statements or in the planning documents.
Goodman lodges at Truganina and Zerra takes the Ford site
Goodman lodged an application in July for three two-storey data centre buildings at 433 Mount Atkinson Road, Truganina, on land acquired from ESR. Truganina sits inside Melbourne's established western cluster, the same corridor where AWS will cool a campus with recycled water in a Victorian first. Goodman has not published a capacity figure for the site.
Zerra DC filed in April for six data centre buildings at 300-340 Barry Road, Campbellfield, on Ford's former Broadmeadows assembly plant, where cars were built from 1959 until 2016. Pelligra Group bought the plant in 2019 and is redeveloping the property as an industrial park called ASSEMBLY. Zerra, previously AGP DC and owned by investment firm AGP, holds 920MW of secured capacity across the United States, India, Japan and Australia, according to industry tracker Baxtel. Campbellfield is Zerra's first announced Australian project.
Casey fields its first data centre application
The application at 585 Berwick-Cranbourne Road, Clyde North covers 53.6 hectares at the corner of Thompsons Road, on land Galileo Group acquired for A$130 million in November 2022. The proposal is valued at up to A$1.12 billion. The applicant has not been named. It is the first data centre application the City of Casey has received.
Council planners requested additional information in May, and 13 objections were on file by 24 July, up from six two days earlier. The site sits in an Urban Growth Zone, a designation that exempts the application from public notice requirements; the objections were filed regardless. City of Casey mayor Stefan Koomen said it would be "inappropriate to form a view before all relevant information has been received", noting councillors have not yet been asked to decide.
The four proposals split across two assessment pathways
Victoria assesses many large data centre proposals through the Development Facilitation Program, an accelerated state pathway for significant economic projects. Under the program the Minister for Planning makes the decision, and third-party appeals to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal do not apply; we looked at how the pathway balances decision speed and local input when NextDC bought 169 hectares at Lovely Banks in Geelong. The Mickleham application runs through that program, while Clyde North sits with the City of Casey under a standard permit assessment.
The state has framed the pipeline as a coordination task. The Action Plan, backed by A$5.5 million and led by the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions, commits to using transport, energy and water data to choose data centre locations. The queue it must coordinate keeps growing: AEMO has mapped 5.4GW of data centre demand seeking transmission connection nationally, and Victoria's share already includes Keppel's 720MW Morwell campus in the Latrobe Valley and NextDC's Geelong land. None of the four Melbourne applications discloses a megawatt figure, so the demand they represent cannot yet be counted in that queue.
What to watch
The Mickleham assessment. Whether the Department of Transport and Planning approves the seven-parcel campus, and whether AirTrunk confirms the site as the second Melbourne campus it announced in December.
The Casey decision. The first data centre application in the municipality is paused on a council information request from May, with 13 objections on file and the objection count still moving.
Capacity disclosures. Neither Goodman nor Zerra DC has published a megawatt figure for its Melbourne site.
The Action Plan in practice. Victoria committed in February to choose data centre locations using transport, energy and water data. Four concurrent Melbourne applications across four corridors are now in front of that commitment.
The November election. Victorians vote on 28 November 2026. Election analyst John Black wrote in the Australian Financial Review on 24 July that Premier Jacinta Allan's leadership is under pressure ahead of the vote, with Jess Wilson leading the Coalition. The Development Facilitation Program vests data centre decisions in the Minister for Planning, so state-assessed applications that run past the vote will be decided by whichever government holds the portfolio. The Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan and its A$25 billion opportunity figure are the current government's framework.