Brisbane's data centres serve mainly Queensland enterprise, government and network traffic. Most facilities are in Fortitude Valley, the CBD fringe, the Brisbane Airport precinct and Springfield. By capacity, Brisbane is a much smaller market than Sydney or Melbourne. Queensland's pipeline is changing that, but most of the growth is proposed for regional sites near major transmission lines rather than in the city itself.
The largest proposal is the Western Downs Digital Park near Dalby: 2.16 GW of peak electrical capacity, lodged with council in August 2026. If built as planned, it would be the largest data centre in Australia.
Brisbane Data Centre Market
How big is Brisbane's data centre market?
Brisbane's operating facilities are individually small by national standards. The largest operating Queensland facilities on RenewMap's September 2026 tracker are in the 4 MW to 12 MW range. RenewMap tracks 36 Queensland data centre projects in total (25 operating, 11 in the pipeline), with 3,242 MW of combined capacity. Most of that capacity comes from pipeline projects rather than operating sites.
Two features shape the market:
- Metro demand is enterprise and government-led. Brisbane facilities mainly host Queensland Government agencies, universities, banks, resources companies and managed service providers, plus network interconnection.
- Large proposals are regional. Queensland has high-voltage transmission corridors, gas-fired generation, and solar and wind resources inland. That has drawn gigawatt-scale proposals to sites such as the Western Downs. None of these is comparable to a city colocation facility.
CommBank's August 2026 analysis lists Queensland among the states with growing developer interest, behind NSW and Victoria, which together hold about three-quarters of proposed national capacity.
Current Data Centre Facilities
Operating Brisbane facilities include:
| Operator | Facility | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEXTDC | B1 | 20 Wharf Street, Brisbane City | Operating |
| NEXTDC | B2 | 454 St Pauls Terrace, Fortitude Valley | Tier IV certified (NEXTDC); 12 MW on RenewMap |
| Equinix | BR1 | 54–58 Alfred Street, Fortitude Valley | Operating |
| iseek | Brisbane Airport data centre | Lomandra Drive, Brisbane Airport | Stage 2 listed at 6 MW on RenewMap |
| iseek | Woolloongabba | 100 Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba | Operating |
| Polaris Data Centre | DC1 | 11 Mary Mackenroth Lane, Springfield Central | Operating |
Other network and managed-service operators, including Telstra, TPG Telecom and Fujitsu, run Brisbane facilities mainly for their own services. NEXTDC also has a Sunshine Coast site; RenewMap lists NEXTDC SC2 as under construction at 6 MW.
Operator profiles: NEXTDC · Equinix
New Data Centre Projects
| Project | Location | Developer | Capacity | Stage | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Downs Digital Park | Kogan, 37 km north-west of Dalby | Zerra DC | 2.16 GW peak electrical | DA lodged with Western Downs Regional Council, Aug 2026 | 27 Sep 2026 |
| Supernode data centre campus | Northern Brisbane, next to South Pine substation | Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners | Listed at 800 MW on RenewMap | Development (data centre component) | 27 Sep 2026 |
| NEXTDC SC2 | Sunshine Coast | NEXTDC | 6 MW (RenewMap) | Construction | 27 Sep 2026 |
Western Downs Digital Park
ABC News reported in September 2026 that Singapore-based Zerra DC has proposed a campus on a 725 ha former feedlot on Dalby Kogan Road, about 250 km west of Brisbane. Reported figures:
- Capacity: 2.16 GW peak electrical demand.
- Energy: at full build, about 43 to 47 GWh a day, which ABC calculates at roughly 25 to 30% of Queensland's average daily electricity use.
- Cost: about $32 billion in total, including about $30 billion of construction.
- Timing: four phases over an estimated four to six years.
- Tenant: ABC reports that Anthropic has signed a long-term lease for Building One, subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval, and intends to start using it in 2027.
- Grid connection: a direct connection to a nearby major substation, bypassing the Ergon Energy distribution network. The site is near three existing gas-fired power stations and several solar and wind farms.
- Cooling and water: ABC reports the campus will be 100% air-cooled. Building One is expected to use about 21,000 litres of water a day and the full campus about 25.5 million litres a year, with on-site rainwater harvesting.
The project has not been approved. ABC notes that the approval process could take years.
Quinbrook Supernode
Quinbrook announced Supernode in 2022 as a four-stage hyperscale data centre campus of about A$2.5 billion on a 30 ha site in northern Brisbane, next to Powerlink's South Pine substation. The battery storage component has been built first. Quinbrook said Supernode Stage 1 began commercial operation on 17 February 2026: 260 MW and 619 MWh of battery storage, with tolling managed by Origin Energy. Stages 2 and 3 are due in 2026 and 2027, taking the batteries to 780 MW and 3,074 MWh. Quinbrook has not published an updated timeline for the data centre buildings.
Queensland AI Infrastructure
Queensland's AI infrastructure story is dominated by one proposal. If Western Downs Digital Park proceeds at full scale, ABC's figure of up to 47 GWh a day works out at roughly 17 TWh a year. That is more than three times the ~5 TWh AEMO estimates all data centres in the National Electricity Market used in 2025-26. The ABC's reported anchor tenant arrangement makes it the most prominent AI-specific proposal outside Sydney and Melbourne.
The practical questions for AI capacity in Queensland are:
- Latency. Training workloads are less sensitive to distance from users than inference or enterprise workloads. That makes a regional site more workable for training than it would be for a colocation facility.
- Connectivity. Regional campuses need diverse long-haul fibre to Brisbane and on to Sydney.
- Cooling. The reported air-cooled design for Western Downs is unusual for GPU workloads. It is worth watching how this is resolved in the detailed application.
More: AI Data Centres in Australia
Power & Renewable Energy
Queensland's transmission network is operated by Powerlink. Ergon Energy and Energex handle distribution. Large data centres typically connect at transmission level.
Energy source is a live policy question. ABC reports that the federal government favours renewable supply as the national standard, while the Queensland Government supports keeping gas and coal options open. The federal Expectations of data centres and AI infrastructure developers (March 2026) ask operators to support the energy transition without raising costs for other users. They are not binding. Federal legislation on a national framework is expected in early 2027, according to Energy-Storage.news.
Battery storage is already part of Brisbane's data centre story. Supernode's first stage is operating as grid storage, and battery capacity next to data centre sites can help with connection timing and load management. See data centre battery storage.
More: Data centre power infrastructure in Australia
Data Centre Construction
Construction activity in Queensland falls into two groups:
- Metro builds and fit-outs. Smaller projects (under about 20 MW) in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast, often delivered by commercial builders with mission-critical experience plus specialist electrical and mechanical subcontractors.
- Regional mega-campuses. Western Downs, if approved, would need a large workforce in a region that also hosts gas, renewable energy and transmission projects competing for the same trades. Powering Skills Organisation estimates that Australia needs about 72,000 more electricians and related trades by 2030.
Construction contractors for Western Downs have not been publicly announced.
More: Data centre construction in Australia
Brisbane Data Centre Companies
| Type | Companies active in Queensland |
|---|---|
| Colocation | NEXTDC, Equinix, iseek, Polaris Data Centre |
| Network operators with data centres | Telstra, TPG Telecom, Fujitsu |
| Developers (proposed) | Zerra DC, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners |
More: Australian data centre companies
Suppliers & Contractors
Queensland suppliers most likely to be involved in current activity:
- Electrical contractors with HV experience, for substation and main switchboard packages. Electrical suppliers
- Civil contractors for regional earthworks, roads and drainage on large rural sites. Civil
- Energy developers and battery specialists, given the power demands of regional proposals. Energy · BESS
- Environmental consultants for council-assessed applications covering noise, traffic, water and ecology. Environmental
- Fibre providers for long-haul diverse routes to regional campuses. Fibre
Latest Queensland Data Centre Developments
18 September 2026. ABC reports an Anthropic lease at Western Downs Digital Park Building One, subject to FIRB approval. Source
14 September 2026. ABC reports Western Downs Digital Park could draw a quarter of Queensland's average daily electricity. Source
August 2026. Zerra DC lodges its development application with Western Downs Regional Council. Source
17 February 2026. Supernode Stage 1 (260 MW / 619 MWh battery) starts commercial operation. Source
Frequently Asked Questions
How many data centres are there in Brisbane?
There is no single official count. RenewMap tracks 25 operating data centre projects in Queensland, and industry directories list around two dozen Brisbane facilities, including telco and enterprise sites. Major colocation operators include NEXTDC, Equinix, iseek and Polaris.
What is the largest data centre proposed in Queensland?
Western Downs Digital Park near Dalby, with 2.16 GW of peak electrical capacity. It is at development application stage and has not been approved.
Is Queensland a good location for AI data centres?
It has advantages: access to land, transmission and generation. It also has constraints: distance from Sydney's interconnection points, a limited specialist workforce in regional areas, and unresolved energy policy. Whether large regional campuses proceed will depend on approvals and grid connection outcomes.
Supplying Queensland Data Centre Projects?
If Queensland's large regional proposals go ahead, the supply chain will need to be engaged years before construction starts. AISB helps engineering, electrical, civil and technology companies identify target accounts, build visibility with developers and contractors, and track projects from planning to procurement.
Sources & Verification
- ABC News: Western Downs Digital Park, 24 Aug, 14 Sep and 18 Sep 2026. Link
- RenewMap: Queensland data centre projects, September 2026. Link
- Quinbrook: Supernode Stage 1 commercial operations, 17 Feb 2026. Link
- w.media: Quinbrook Supernode data centre approval, July 2022. Link
- NEXTDC: B2 Brisbane. Link
- Polaris Data Centre. Link
- CommBank: Australia's data centre boom, 6 Aug 2026. Link
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