Australia’s data centre sector is experiencing a surge in investment, with 97 new facilities expected to more than double the country’s data centre capacity pipeline by 2030. However, an increasing share of this development is taking place outside Sydney, according to the latest industry forecast.
Australia currently has 1.6GW of computing capacity across 163 data centres, according to the Australian Data Centre Forecast Report, published by Data Centres Australia (DCA) in partnership with DC Byte.
The report projects that the country’s total pipeline will reach 3.9GW across 260 facilities by 2030, up from 3.2GW in April. This represents a 21.9 percent increase in the pipeline over just six months, driven largely by growing demand for computing infrastructure from the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
Melbourne is emerging as a major beneficiary of this investment, with proposed projects progressing through the approval process more rapidly than those in Sydney.
Over the six-month reporting period, 1.2GW of proposed capacity in Melbourne moved from the Early Stage category to Committed, compared with 0.7GW in Sydney. Projects classified as Committed have secured planning approval and financial backing, making them more likely to proceed.
Sydney, meanwhile, has experienced a significant contraction in its overall data centre pipeline, with total pipeline capacity falling by 3.6GW and Early Stage capacity declining by 4.4GW.
DCA attributes the reduction to constraints on electricity supply, less predictable planning and policy approval timelines, and recent policy changes.
In contrast, Melbourne’s pipeline has expanded by 1.7GW, including 1.2GW in projects that have recently reached the Committed stage.
The report also highlights a shift towards significantly larger data centre developments. While only four existing facilities in Australia exceed 100MW, a further 52 sites of this scale are currently in the pipeline.
Victoria is expected to accommodate the largest share of these developments, with 24 proposed facilities, compared with 19 in New South Wales.
Investment activity has accelerated considerably over the past six months, with 2.8GW of new data centre capacity proposed and 2.1GW securing the necessary policy and financial backing.
Other Australian states are also attracting a growing share of investment. DCA found that the proportion of data centres planned outside the country’s two largest markets, Sydney and Melbourne, has increased from 19 percent to 31 percent over the past two years.
The shift reflects major proposed developments in regional Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.
“Australia is a highly attractive market for sustainable data centre development,” said DCA CEO Belinda Dennett, pointing to the country’s established industry ecosystem and significant renewable energy generation capacity.
Dennett said the changing development landscape also highlighted the need for closer consideration of project viability as the sector expands.
She expects the trend to continue as emerging workloads, including AI and neocloud services, drive demand for additional computing capacity and introduce different requirements for data centre locations.
The report also highlights the influence of Australia’s current energy constraints and differing policy approaches across states in shaping where future data centre investment is likely to occur.
