Data CentresLeon Della BoscaWed 19 Aug 26
Ten-Storey Data Centre Revealed for Swanbank Industrial Precinct
A 10-storey data centre proposed for Swanbank, 6km west of Ipswich, would rise about 70m, potentially making it the tallest building in the Ipswich local government area.
Northern Concept Swanb has filed plans with the Ipswich City Council to develop the 82,576sq m facility at Lot 5 Six Leaf Street, about 60km west-north-west of the Brisbane CBD.
The proposal, which would rise 72.25m, has been recommended for approval subject to conditions.
The city’s current highest occupied building is the 15-storey Oaks Aspire tower that rises 47.9 metres on the edge of the Ipswich CBD.
The Swanbank site is in an established industrial precinct buffered from nearby residential areas.
Despite the building’s height and bulk, architect Miasto’s designs for the proposal show green walls, mesh-patterned cladding and rooftop screening that documents said would reduce its visual impact.
The site is near Powerlink Queensland’s Blackstone Substation and an associated battery storage facility that would give the proposed centre a high-voltage power connection and access to behind-the-meter supply.
The development would connect to a recently constructed sewer main and water mains, according to the application.
A 1696.5 cubic metre detention tank, paired with treatment systems, would manage stormwater on site. Treated water would then discharge to an existing swale. Offsets would be provided to deliver a net benefit elsewhere, though specific offset sites have not yet been identified publicly.
The proposal also involves clearing regulated vegetation, including mapped koala habitat, although an ecological assessment found the habitat holds limited value due to fragmentation and past disturbance.
Zoning for regional business and industry means the site is under a code assessment pathway, removing the need for public notification.
HPC Planning filed the request on the applicant’s behalf, asking the council to assess the proposal under the 2006 Ipswich Planning Scheme. That scheme had been replaced by the Ipswich City Plan 2025 just days earlier.
Residents in nearby suburbs have raised concerns over the absence of a formal submission process for a project of this scale.
Those concerns include the facility’s projected electricity and water demand, noise from cooling systems and backup generators, and the extent of vegetation clearing involved.
The proposal comes amid a wider debate over how Australia’s electricity grid should absorb growing data centre demand, which is forecast to reach 10 per cent of national energy market consumption by 2050.
Queensland and the Northern Territory were the only jurisdictions to oppose a proposed Commonwealth law that would require large-scale data centre developers to underwrite their own renewable power supply.
