The site of the factory that produced the last Australian-made Fords has been slated for a new era as a data centre.
Singapore-headquartered data centre operator and developer Zerra DC wants to develop lots 5 and 6 at 240 Barry Road at Campbellfield, about 17km north of the Melbourne CBD.
It was once the site of the Broadmeadows Assembly Plant where the last of the Blue Oval’s Aussie-made cars, a blue Ford Falcon XR6, came off the line on October 7, 2016, ending 91 years of local vehicle manufacturing.
Zerra DC has filed a request for a ministerial permit via the Victorian Government’s Development Facilitation program for the data centre proposal.
Zerra DC, which operates in India, Japan and Australia, is a new brand introduced in earlier this year by the multi-national AGP Sustainable Real Assets as a hyperscale data centre platform.
This latest major campus proposed for Australia is expected to have a development cost of $1.1 billion.
The 22ha site proposed from the project is within Pelligra Group’s 60ha Assembly industrial estate.
Zerra DC plans a staged development of 211,464sq m of GFA to accommodate a 336MW data centre precinct of six buildings including ancillary offices.
The project is being designed by data centre specialist Greenbox Architecture, known for its large-scale facilities for NEXT DC and Equinix.
▲ Greenbox is designing Zerra DC’s new Campbellfield data centre campus, alongside Aurecon.
In its permit application, Zerra DC said it wanted to deliver “strategically justified industrial uses with a modern twist”.
In addition to the overall site masterplan, Zerra DC has submitted detailed designs for stage 1, which includes a 29,000sq m two-storey data hall building, a 5MW battery energy storage system (BESS) and a substation.
Approximately 45 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries would be in use within Stage 1, within 576 battery racks throughout the building.
This first stage would also contain forty eight 20,000L generator belly tanks, and another forty eight 1,000L generator day tanks.
Spotlight on data centre energy use
The specialist developer acknowledged that there had been heightened concern for data centre’s resource-intensive land use for both energy and water.
Zerra DC said the campus “represents a ‘community first’ approach” to “responsible resource stewardship”.
Its use of air cooling means the campus would consume a fraction of the water intake of other Melbourne data centres, which use thousands of megalitres of water annually, it said.
▲ The wider Ford site at Campbellfield has attracted developers since the carmaker put it up for sale in the mid-2010s.
Zerra DC said that the proposed data centre would provide a response to sustainability initiatives, utilising air cooling to reduce water reliance and including energy storage batteries which it said would reduce the demand on the grid at peak periods.
The developer anticipates that the construction period for the entire masterplan will occur over a 12-year period, allocating 24 months for each stage.
End of the line for Ford
The Ford Broadmeadows Assembly Plant was opened January 27, 1960, by the-then Prime Minister Robert Menzies.
The first XK Falcon rolled off its production line in June that year, launching the iconic Australian model on to market.
The factory went on to produce more than four million vehicles during its 57 years of operation.
Pelligra acquired a 60ha section of Ford’s Campbellfield site next to the Upfield train station in 2019 for $82.1 million.
▲ Broadmeadows was the birthplace in 1979 of the XD Falcon, producing more than 42,000 of them in its first year of production.
The developer has been preparing the site for a new industrial and employment precinct alongside Qualitas.
Pelligra was granted a subdivision permit in 2025 which allowed it to split the site into 29 lots with 5000sq m of public space.
The wider Ford site has also attracted other developers, with Time & Place acquiring the Ford Australia distribution centre last year at 1777-1787 Sydney Road for a $250-million project.