IREN unveils A$10B Wagga Wagga data centre campus beside landfill
Nasdaq-listed IREN has proposed a A$10 billion, 900-megawatt data centre campus in Wagga Wagga, offering the local council more than A$200 million in community benefits. The plan follows rival CDC Data Centres' A$15 billion proposal at the same site, with both projects awaiting NSW government approv
Nasdaq-listed IREN has proposed a A$10 billion ($7 billion), 900-megawatt data centre campus beside the Gregadoo Waste Management Centre in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, two days after the local council agreed to sell adjacent land to rival CDC Data Centres. The Redbank campus, unveiled on Wednesday, would sit west of the council-run landfill on the city's southern outskirts, on land that already carries transmission infrastructure, according to the project's community website.
IREN has offered to pay Wagga Wagga City Council more than A$200 million over 30 years, covering a community benefit fund, local infrastructure and council rates. A day earlier, CDC announced a benefits package worth up to A$225 million tied to its proposed A$15 billion, 1.4-gigawatt campus beside the same landfill. The announcement followed a vote by councillors on Monday, in a session closed to the public, authorising general manager Peter Thompson to contract to sell CDC 232 Ashfords Road, a parcel next to the tip that the council had bought for future waste management. The council made the sale conditional on CDC signing a binding agreement on community benefits.
“This is not about building a data centre and walking away,” CDC founder and chief executive Greg Boorer said in the company’s statement.
Under the council’s conditions, CDC must provide community benefits worth at least one per cent of the estimated A$15 billion development cost, or A$150 million, over the life of the project. CDC said the commitment would take the form of a voluntary planning agreement with the council, the mechanism NSW developers use to fund local infrastructure and services. The company has added a further A$75 million for regional initiatives such as housing, sport, education and community facilities, with the whole package subject to the project winning approval and proceeding.
CDC’s Boorer has pointed to the Gregadoo site’s proximity to transmission lines, while noting that its position beside the landfill makes it unappealing for housing. Independent state MP Joe McGirr, who represents Wagga Wagga, has made the same point, saying the site suits a data centre but is not somewhere people want to live because it is next to the tip, Region Riverina reported.
IREN’s offer includes 30 years of council rates, while CDC is promising about 1,500 construction jobs, against more than 500 for Redbank, while both companies are targeting at least 200 ongoing roles. IREN plans to house its construction workforce in an on-site camp to avoid adding pressure on local housing.
Following the Power Lines
CDC has attributed its selection of the Gregadoo site to a 330-kilovolt substation built for the Project EnergyConnect transmission link to South Australia, located 1.3 kilometres north of its site. The CDC campus would sit about 11 kilometres south of Wagga Wagga’s city centre, according to the company’s scoping report.
“We are attracted to the site as it is not on prime agricultural land, it’s near an electricity network and Wagga has all the required support services,” IREN executive director Lindsay Ward told The Daily Advertiser.
Both companies say they will fund their own network connections, and IREN plans to contract new renewable generation, firming and storage to cover its load.
That leaves Redbank behind IREN’s first Australian project, an 800MW campus at Bundey, about 125 kilometres northeast of Adelaide in South Australia. In June, IREN signed a transmission connection agreement at Bundey securing four 330-kilovolt feeder exits, enough to support the full load without network upgrades, with energisation due from 2028.
Redbank targets initial energisation in 2029, followed by a staged build over six to eight years, according to the project website. IREN plans to lodge a scoping report, the first step in the NSW approval process, with the state planning department at the end of October, and to hold community drop-in sessions in Wagga Wagga on November 4 and 5.
At more than A$10 billion for 900MW, Redbank would cost more than A$11.1 million per megawatt, according to a Mingtiandi calculation, compared with about A$10.7 million per megawatt for CDC’s campus.
Approvals Await
The council’s decision moves CDC’s land deal forward, but not its campus. The data centre operator has requested the state’s environmental assessment requirements and must still prepare an environmental impact statement, put it on public exhibition and respond to submissions before the NSW government makes a determination. The council expects the assessment to run over the next 12 months.
The CDC site is also zoned for primary production, under which data centres are not permitted, so the company is seeking a site-specific change to the local planning rules, according to its scoping report.
Residents launched two petitions within 24 hours of CDC’s plan becoming public, and one had drawn more than 1,000 signatures by last week, ABC News reported. Gregadoo is also the setting for proposed solar and battery farms and an expansion of the landfill, according to a Daily Advertiser report on local reaction, with the local ratepayers’ association saying it wants to hear more from both data centre developers before taking a position.
Local opposition has already sunk one major NSW data centre proposal. Goodman Group last month withdrew its A$798 million Project Mars application in Sydney’s Lane Cove West after the plan drew 374 public submissions, only nine of them supportive.
Bitcoin to AI
IREN was founded in 2019 as a bitcoin miner and pivoted to AI cloud services, counting Microsoft and NVIDIA among its customers. The company had been working on the Wagga Wagga project for more than a year before its public debut, IREN executive director Lindsay Ward told The Daily Advertiser. IREN’s Redbank proposal targets 900MW of capacity with construction starting as early as 2027 and initial energisation in 2029, followed by a staged build over six to eight years, according to the project website. IREN plans to lodge a scoping report, the first step in the NSW approval process, with the state planning department at the end of October, and to hold community drop-in sessions in Wagga Wagga on November 4 and 5. Output JSON only. Ensure the JSON is valid. Use the same language as the source. Use British spelling and Singapore/Asia-Pacific conventions. Use day-first dates. Use
