{"id":83235,"date":"2026-08-30T06:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T06:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/83235\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T06:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T06:36:16","slug":"northern-tasmanians-prepare-to-fight-george-town-council-ai-data-centre-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/83235\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Tasmanians prepare to fight George Town Council AI data centre approval"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anne-Marie Bastian and Nicholla Thompson are preparing to fight a multi-billion dollar company’s plans to build an artificial intelligence data centre.<\/p>\n

The two northern Tasmanians, who live in the riverside community of Rowella, are among the hundreds of locals outraged by the recent approval of Firmus Technologies’ AI data centre<\/a>, proposed for Bell Bay, which they say would be less than two kilometres from their homes.<\/p>\n

Firmus Technologies has plans for three AI data centres in Tasmania’s north.<\/p>\n

As well as the 288-megawatt centre, approved with conditions by the George Town Council this week, a 104-megawatt facility is already under construction outside Launceston, and a development application has been submitted for a 52-megawatt centre in Wesley Vale, east of Devonport.<\/p>\n

Some members of the community are so concerned they have threatened to sell their homes or not pay their rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But despite the pushback, George Town Council said it was bound by the planning scheme in its assessment of the project.<\/p>\n

“We can’t see any other grounds to do anything more than to approve it in terms of the local planning scheme,” Mayor Greg Keiser said.\"People<\/p>\n

The George Town Council approved a proposal for a new AI data centre at its meeting on Tuesday. (ABC News: Emily Smith)<\/p>\n

‘We’ll make it happen’<\/p>\n

Ms Bastian and Ms Thompson, who are the president and secretary of the newly-formed Environmental Awareness Association, now plan to challenge the council’s decision in the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT).<\/p>\n

After being formally notified of the council’s decision, they have only 14 days to secure legal representation, crowd fund what they estimate could be $20,000-$50,000 in costs, and lodge the appeal.<\/p>\n

“It’s a ludicrous time frame given how long they had to put the application together and consider all of their options,” Ms Bastian said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think it’s fair at all but we’ll make it happen.”<\/p>\n

The George Town Council assessed the data centre proposal under the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993.<\/p>\n

Ms Bastian said the association would use the argument it presented to Tuesday’s council meeting \u2014 that “using a 33-year-old ruler” to measure something as “futuristic” as a data centre was inappropriate.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Nicholla Thompson and Anne-Marie Bastian prepare their appeal against the George Town Council’s decision to approve the data centre. (ABC News: Emily Smith)<\/p>\n

Vote on another data centre expected in October<\/p>\n

Latrobe Mayor Peter Freshney, whose council takes in an area west of George Town, raised a similar point.<\/p>\n

“We, as planning authorities, have to assess under an antiquated act [that is] unable to consider those things that primarily concern our constituents,” Cr Freshney said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not necessarily appropriate for development applications that are highly technical, as in the tech sector, that are complex, that have potentially significant environmental impact and significant impact economically.”<\/p>\n

Firmus’s development application for a 52-megawatt data centre in Wesley Vale, which is in the Latrobe council area, was published this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\""Mill<\/p>\n

Firmus wants to build an AI data centre at Mill Park in Wesley Vale. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard)<\/p>\n

Cr Freshney said he expected the council to vote on it in October \u2014 well before the federal government plans to legislate new national standards for AI data centres.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I regret that work is retrospective rather than proactively doing that prior to these applications coming before planning authorities,” Cr Freshney said.<\/p>\n

‘Major project’ consideration<\/p>\n

Cr Freshney said he would speak with his fellow councillors and staff about asking the state planning minister Kerry Vincent to declare the proposal a “major project”.<\/p>\n

That would mean the project would go to the Tasmanian Planning Commission, instead of the council, for approval.<\/p>\n

Community members raised a similar idea with the George Town Council \u2014 suggesting the council ask Mr Vincent to declare it a “project of state significance”, which would have also put the decision in the hands of the planning commission.<\/p>\n

A major project is generally of regional significance, whereas a project of state significance is expected to have statewide impacts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"He<\/p>\n

Peter Freshney says the planning laws are “antiquated”. (ABC News: Emily Smith)<\/p>\n

Several George Town councillors reported hearing Mr Vincent tell a Local Government Association of Tasmania meeting it would not be appropriate to consider the data centre a project of state significance, and a formal request was never made.<\/p>\n

A state government spokesperson confirmed the government did not believe a project of state significance designation would be appropriate.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff also said the planning minister should not designate the proposed Wesley Vale data centre as a major project because it could be accommodated within the existing planning scheme.<\/p>\n

But Cr Freshney said he believed that view could be tested, through a formal request to Mr Vincent to consider the data centre under the major projects framework.<\/p>\n

“That’s something we have to discuss at our council and determine if we want to take that course of action,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said he hoped to have that discussion with fellow councillors within the next week.<\/p>\n

Social licence, broader impacts not considered<\/p>\n

University of Tasmania Professor of Management David Adams said the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act was “not fit for purpose” to deal with AI data centres.<\/p>\n

\"He<\/p>\n

David Adams believes the Wesley Vale proposal could be considered as a “major project”.\u00a0 (ABC News: Emily Smith)<\/p>\n

He said that was because it did not require consideration of the broader “cumulative impact” of multiple AI data centres.<\/p>\n

He also said flow-on state or national effects, like the centres’ impacts on water, energy supply and pricing, were beyond its scope.<\/p>\n

“And another example is the idea of a social licence,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Social licences are considered well and truly outside of planning schemes, and yet in principle, they ought to be on the inside, rather than the outside, [of the] process.”\"The<\/p>\n

Nicholla Thompson and Anne-Marie Bastian say the deadline to lodge their appeal is “ludicrous”, but that they’ll “make it happen”. (ABC News: Emily Smith)<\/p>\n

He said while the Wesley Vale AI data centre would not meet the threshold to be considered as a project of state significance, it could be considered as a major project.<\/p>\n

But with that option now off the table in George Town, Ms Bastian and Ms Thompson feel the stakes couldn’t be higher for their TASCAT appeal.<\/p>\n

“If we lose, I guess we’re moving,” Ms Bastian said.<\/p>\n

“Tasmania loses a fantastic community to an AI factory,” Ms Thompson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anne-Marie Bastian and Nicholla Thompson are preparing to fight a multi-billion dollar company’s plans to build an artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1131,30863,1132,22,21,28120,134455,128154,134456],"class_list":["post-83235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-ai","tag-ai-data-centre","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bell-bay","tag-environmental-awareness-association","tag-firmus-technologies","tag-george-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}