Anthropic Joins $32 Billion Western Downs Digital Park West of Brisbane

Anthropic, the San Francisco company behind the Claude family of artificial intelligence models, has signed its first Australian data centre agreement, for the Western Downs Digital Park proposed on a 725 hectare cattle feedlot near Dalby, about 250 kilometres west of Brisbane.

Premier David Crisafulli announced the deal in State Parliament on 16 September 2026, describing the $32 billion campus as the largest data centre proposed in Australia and a project that will position Queensland at the forefront of locking in data sovereignty.

The park is the work of Zerra DC, the data centre arm of Singapore-based AGP Sustainable Real Assets, which lodged its development application with Western Downs Regional Council on 17 August 2026. Anthropic has agreed to take the first of the four planned data halls, as reported by the ABC, with the capacity to grow across the campus, and aims to begin using it in 2027.

The facility would run Claude’s day-to-day inference workloads, answering user queries, rather than train new models. The lease remains subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board, and the development application is still before Council.

The site is Lot 125 on DY316 at 1933 Dalby-Kogan Road, a single freehold parcel of 725.5 hectares owned by Wambo Cattle Company and occupied by the Wambo Feedlot, approved in 2005 for 24,000 head of cattle.

It sits in the Rural zone but inside the Kogan East Special Industry Area of the Western Downs Planning Scheme, an area set aside for high impact industry, renewable energy and battery storage that needs separation from homes. The nearest town centre is Dalby, 37 kilometres to the south-east, and there is no reticulated water within 15 kilometres.

What the site does have is power. The Braemar 1 and Braemar 2 gas-fired power stations (504 MW and 450 MW) and Powerlink’s Braemar substations sit directly to the south, the Darling Downs Power Station and Solar Farm to the south-west, and APA’s Daandine power station to the north-east, all threaded through coal seam gas wells. Urbis, the town planner on the application, puts the strategy plainly.

The location for this project was selected very thoughtfully and strategically to ensure minimal impact on communities and maximum synergy with energy availability, as well as policy and regulatory requirements. The site is directly adjacent to three gas power plants and a solar farm.

Urbis, Town Planning Report

The campus itself is four single storey data halls arranged in two pairs at the centre of the site, each providing 36,000 square metres of data floor space within a 41,897 square metre building, for a combined gross floor area of 167,588 square metres.

Designed by HDR, the halls have 9.2 metre facades of non-reflective stainless steel cladding under pitched roofs that reach 13.23 metres, and they are set about 950 metres back from Dalby-Kogan Road behind the mature tree screen along the northern boundary. Each hall has its own substation and a yard of battery-backed power conditioning units, and the pairs are served by two customer-owned switching stations on the southern boundary.

The electrical design is where the scale shows. The first switching station operates at 275 kV, fed by two feeders from a power station, two from Powerlink’s Braemar 275 kV substation and five from the Darling Downs Power Station; the second operates at 330 kV from the Braemar 330 kV substation.

Each of the four stages establishes a substation of three 540 MVA transformers stepping the supply down to 33 kV, with a battery storage system wired in series between the incoming bus and the hall so that the campus presents a stable, near-constant load to the network and can trade energy with the grid. Zerra DC has publicly described the campus as 1.44 gigawatts of IT capacity across four 360 megawatt buildings; the total facility demand across the four stages is about 2.16 GVA, which is why the state government compares the draw to 1.5 million households.

Data centres are increasingly becoming part of the energy landscape in Australia and play a role in converting electricity into digital services, jobs and economic activity. High quality data centre projects, that leverage technologies and development, can positively impact a region like the Western Downs by allowing it to capture more economic value from its status as an energy capital, rather than exporting most of its energy to other regions.

Urbis, Town Planning Report

Water was the first question the community asked, and the application answers it with air-cooled technology. Because the halls do not use evaporative cooling, operational demand is put at about 16.5 kilolitres a day, which the state government compares to a conventional office building of the same size, after a one-off 26.9 megalitre flush and fill of each cooling system.

Demand peaks during construction, when a temporary village on the south-western side of the site will house up to 1,500 workers and the site will need about 522 kilolitres a day. With no town water available, supply comes from road tankers, on-site and off-site recycled water, the existing dam subject to entitlement, rainwater harvesting and treated wastewater reuse, with multi-day storage at each building.

The four stages are expected to take about four years to build, with a concrete batching plant on site for the duration, and the workers village is removed once construction ends. Access is from both Dalby-Kogan Road and Grahams Road through upgraded intersections, boom gates and guard houses, with separate entry and exit, and 732 car spaces are provided across the stages.

Urbis’ economic assessment counts about 1,500 direct construction jobs, about 1,400 ongoing direct jobs at full operation and an estimated $760 million a year in gross value added to the Queensland economy, on $31.9 billion of private capital investment.

The Premier has framed the project around energy as much as data. The state has said Anthropic will meet the full cost of its grid connection, including network upgrades, that the campus will not require new transmission infrastructure, and that Queensland will allow the halls to draw on a mix of sources including coal and gas alongside new wind and solar, with the tenant expected to pursue long-term agreements with new renewable generation.

This is a major win that will deliver more jobs, put more energy into Queensland’s grid and drive down power prices for Queenslanders. This allows our state to be at the forefront of locking in data sovereignty.

Premier David Crisafulli, as reported by the ABC, 16 September 2026

Western Downs Mayor Andrew Smith, whose council is the assessment manager, has welcomed the interest while reminding the proponents that the application is still with his planning team. Earlier in the process he told the ABC that the region had built a lot of energy infrastructure that had benefited it, and that if more needed to be built, “bring it on”. The application is impact assessable, so it will be publicly notified before Council decides it, and it has been referred to the State Assessment and Referral Agency and Powerlink.

Project Rundown

Development Parameter	Proposed Development
Address	1933 Dalby-Kogan Road, Kogan QLD 4406 (about 37 km north-west of Dalby and 250 km west of Brisbane)
Development Type	Material change of use for research and technology industry (data centre), workforce accommodation and associated electrical infrastructure
Site Area	725.5 ha, a single freehold lot currently used for the Wambo Feedlot
Zone	Rural zone, within the Kogan East Special Industry Area, Western Downs Planning Scheme 2017
Buildings	Four single storey data halls of 36,000 m² of data floor space each, delivered in four stages (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B)
Gross Floor Area	167,588 m² (41,897 m² per hall)
Height	13.23 m to the roof ridge; 9.2 m facades
IT Capacity	1.44 GW across four 360 MW buildings, according to the developer; each stage draws about 540 MVA from the grid, 2.16 GVA in total
Power Supply	Two customer-owned switching stations at 275 kV and 330 kV, fed from the Braemar substations, the Darling Downs Power Station and a further power station; a Level 2 substation with three 540 MVA transformers per stage; battery-backed power conditioning in series with each hall
Cooling	Primarily air-cooled, with closed-loop liquid cooling; no water-based evaporative cooling
Water Supply	Independent on-site supply: road tanker deliveries, recycled water, the existing dam, rainwater harvesting and treated wastewater reuse
Workforce Accommodation	Temporary village for up to 1,500 construction workers with indoor and outdoor recreation, removed after construction
Construction	Approximately four years, in four stages; on-site concrete batching plant for the duration
Jobs	About 1,500 direct construction jobs and about 1,400 ongoing direct on-site jobs at full operation
Economic Benefit	$31.9 billion in private capital investment; an estimated $760 million a year in gross value added to the Queensland economy
Car Parking	732 spaces (183 per stage)
Vehicle Access	Dalby-Kogan Road (state-controlled) and Grahams Road, with intersection upgrades, boom gates, guard houses and separate entry and exit
Sustainability	Framework: No rating tool is nominated. The campus is designed to present a stable, near-constant load to the Powerlink network through battery storage in series with each data hall. Envelope: Single storey halls with 9.2 m facades of non-reflective stainless steel cladding under pitched roofs to 13.23 m, set about 950 m back from Dalby-Kogan Road; all outdoor lighting shielded and directed downward to protect the rural dark sky. Living Greenery: A native landscape buffer along the boundaries in the Forested and Woodland Downs character, regenerated grassland and woodland around the halls, and retention of the existing dams; the site is already largely cleared and no significant stand-alone trees are removed. Water: Primarily air-cooled technology, so no evaporative cooling; no town water within 15 km, so supply is by road tanker, on-site and off-site recycled water, the existing dam (subject to entitlement), rainwater harvesting and treated wastewater reuse. About 522 kL a day during construction, a one-off 26.9 ML flush and fill of each cooling system, and about 16.5 kL a day in operation. Movement: Access from Dalby-Kogan Road and Grahams Road with upgraded intersections, separate entry and exit, bus access within the workers village and 732 car spaces across the four stages. Solar PV: Not specified or detailed within the documents reviewed. The site adjoins the Darling Downs Solar Farm and the Braemar generation hub, and the tenant is expected to seek long-term supply agreements with new wind and solar generation. Waste & Recycling: The waste management plan provides for servicing within the site, with separate streams for general waste, commingled recycling, cardboard, food organics, soft plastics and electronic waste.
Anchor Tenant	Anthropic, under an agreement announced on 16 September 2026, subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval
Status	Lodged with Western Downs Regional Council, received 17 August 2026; referred to the State Assessment and Referral Agency and Powerlink
Assessment Level	Impact assessable, with public notification to follow
Developer / Applicant	Zerra DC (Western Downs Digital Park Pty Ltd), the data centre arm of Singapore-based AGP Sustainable Real Assets
Landowner	Wambo Cattle Company Pty Ltd
Town Planner	Urbis (Cameron Stanley, Matthew Brown)
Architect and Engineering	HDR
Landscape Architect	Urbis
Stormwater	MCG Consult
Date Submitted	17 August 2026

Zerra DC is the data centre business of AGP Sustainable Real Assets, a Singapore-based infrastructure investor backed by a strategic investment of up to $650 million from the American fund manager Stonepeak in 2023. Before Western Downs, AGP’s data centre exposure was a US$2 billion Indian joint venture of 310 MW with Digital Edge and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, and Zerra has also planned a $1.1 billion data centre on the former Ford factory site at Campbellfield, north of Melbourne. Western Downs Digital Park is by some distance its largest project, and with Anthropic attached it becomes the first Australian data centre campus with a frontier AI developer as its anchor tenant.

Plans

western-downs-digital-park-proposed-plans

Renders and drawings by HDR and landscape plans by Urbis, lodged with development application to Western Downs Regional Council; renders are indicative and subject to change.