{"id":596683,"date":"2026-11-10T08:43:23","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T21:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=596683"},"modified":"2026-11-10T08:43:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T21:43:24","slug":"controversial-sydney-ai-data-centre-at-cooks-river-scrapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=596683","title":{"rendered":"Controversial Sydney AI data centre at Cooks River scrapped"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Plans for another controversial AI data centre in Sydney have been scrapped, with a community group hailing the decision as a “victory for people power”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facility, which was set to become part of a proposed logistics hub on the Cooks River at Arncliffe in the city’s south, faced backlash from the local community after it was revealed in July last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developers Stockland and John Boyd Properties proposed to redevelop the rezoned 18.3-hectare Kogarah Golf Club site into an estimated $3.5 billion logistics precinct including an AI data centre.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Stockland and John Boyd Properties withdrew their plans for the AI data centre. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Stop the Cooks River AI Project (SCRAP), which consists of hundreds of members, had been protesting against the development since forming in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘We were worried’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Group organiser Paddy Gibson said surrounding residents were celebrating the “very good win for people power”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“People really love this river and we’re just horrified to hear that it could be threatened in this way,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Mr Gibson said it would have posed a risk to the fragile local ecology around the river, which is called Goolay’yari in local Indigenous languages<\/a>, which was already recovering from “industrialisation over the years”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s endangered plants and other animal species in the green space,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s plenty of people trying to work on remediating what is a very polluted river, and we were worried that this would set back those efforts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stop the Cooks River AI Project (SCRAP), which consists of hundreds of members, had been protesting against the development since forming in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90574,"featured_media":587657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18607,12785],"tags":[19629,2139],"class_list":["post-596683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-news","category-data-centre","tag-stockland","tag-sydney"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t