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Goodman has withdrawn its Project Mars data centre proposal in Lane Cove West after residents formed an action group against the development. The three-storey facility would have sat 16 metres from an 82-year-old resident's fence and a block from a school.
Goodman has withdrawn its proposal for the Project Mars data centre in Lane Cove West, Sydney, following a community campaign against the development. The withdrawal was announced after this edition of Good Weekend went to print.
The proposal had alarmed residents who feared a cluster of data centres in their suburb. Shavarsh Bedrossian, 82, has lived in his modest brick bungalow in Lane Cove on Sydney's north shore for 56 years and four months. He bought the home for $15,900 in May 1970. The owner threw in his dog, a little dachshund, because he was going to a nursing home and could not take it with him.
Lane Cove History and Demographics
Bedrossian said he got the house and a dog. Bedrossian, born in Egypt to Armenian parents, has seen plenty of change in Lane Cove. The area used to be the site of a rubbish tip but has long been gentrified by professionals and young families. There are daycares and primary schools, a national park and the Lane Cove River, a remnant natural area painstakingly restored by bushcare volunteers.
He had hoped to live out his final years there in peace and quiet. In April 2025, Bedrossian received a glossy flyer from Goodman announcing plans for a new data centre called Project Mars in the nearby business park in Lane Cove West. According to the flyer, the data centre would provide increased speed of digital access and better security of sensitive data for businesses all over Sydney.
The flyer featured an artist's impression of a futuristic facility with an elegant, curved facade and rooftop garden. Bedrossian knew what a data centre was. A US company called AirTrunk had built one across the other side of the business park in 2020. That building was boxy, windowless and irremediably ugly, and it made a constant humming noise like a meteor-sized fridge.
Its only saving grace was that it was almost half a kilometre away from the nearest houses. But Goodman's data centre, three storeys tall, was meant to be just four metres from the community garden nursery and 16 metres from Bedrossian's fence. The local primary school and daycare centre were only a block away. The facility would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Community Campaign Against Data Centre
Bedrossian said it certainly seemed very big and so close. Over the coming months, residents, sporting organisations, dog-walkers and just about anyone else who loved the suburb began meeting informally to consider their options. Paul Trainor, who has lived in Lane Cove for 25 years, was one of them. He said that at that stage they did not have much detail about Goodman's proposal, so their discussions were pretty vague.
By early 2026, however, Goodman had begun lodging more documents. It became apparent that the data centre would rely for back-up power on 49 diesel generators, requiring the storage of more than one million litres of diesel fuel on site. It also emerged, thanks to the local newspaper, that Goodman was not the only developer eyeing off the site, and that four more data centres were in the pipeline.
Sasha Titchkosky, a mother of two, said that is when they got really scared. Residents formed an action group called Lane Cove Responsible Planning, or LCRP, with Titchkosky as its spokesperson. It became clear to the group that if the projects were approved, their suburb could within five years be host to a whole data-centre cluster. Titchkosky said they would use almost 400 megawatts, which is enough to power 200,000 homes.
The buildings, up to 34 metres tall, would sprawl across the site, looming over the streets and bushland like a crippled space station, pulsing with heat and light. But Goodman could not have known what the locals had in store. Over the next six months, LCRP would mount a formidable community campaign, an all-hands insurgency against Australia's largest industrial property developer. Titchkosky said they had so many moments where they felt it was inevitable.
AI Demand Drives Infrastructure Boom
It seemed pretty hard to stop it, but they were committed to doing everything they could to protect their community. Data centres are called AI factories insofar as they store and process all the information that makes the digital age possible. Notwithstanding the recent suggestion from tech chiefs that AI could make humans extinct within the next decade, demand for the technology is still surging and, along with it, the need for more data centres.
At last count, Australia had 296 of them, with another 90 in the pipeline. Anthropic, the company behind the AI model Claude, just signed a deal to use a $32 billion data centre, Australia's largest, in western Queensland. According to CommBank, more than $150 billion will be spent on AI infrastructure in the next four years, mostly in NSW and Victoria.
Politicians find it virtually impossible to say no to this kind of money, and have given the industry the red-carpet-and-petals treatment. Data centres are routinely deemed to be essential infrastructure, allowing them to bypass local planning laws. NSW and Victoria have agreed to assess applications in 75 days, quicker than most councils take to tick off on a cat flap.
Data Centre Industry Growth and Criticism
Craig Scroggie, CEO of NextDC, said that when they need access to something, they just make the request and generally they are very, very happy to support what they are doing. Concerns about data centres include their profligate use of water for cooling and their appetite for land that could otherwise be used for housing. Noise is also an issue.
In August, a data centre in Campbellfield in Melbourne's northern suburbs, being developed by Singapore-based multinational, was the subject of complaints.
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theage:AI data centres are springing up in communities across the country. Now, residents are fighting backThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Goodman Withdrawal Lane Cove Residents Data Centre Opposition AI Infrastructure Australia
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