Firmus Wins Approval for Tasmania AI Data Centre
George Town Council approved Firmus Technologies' proposed 288-megawatt AI data centre at Long Reach in northern Tasmania on August 25, with six of seven councillors present voting in favour. ABC News reports that the approval covers the former Gunns pulp mill site in the Bell Bay Advanced Manufacturing Zone and carries council-imposed conditions. The decision followed 349 public submissions and a petition opposing the project.
George Town Council has approved Firmus Technologies' proposed 288-megawatt AI data centre at Long Reach, near Bell Bay in northern Tasmania. Six of the seven councillors present voted in favour of the development on August 25, ABC News reported.
The proposed facility would occupy the former Gunns pulp mill site in the Bell Bay Advanced Manufacturing Zone. ABC News reports that the approval is subject to conditions imposed by the council.
Public objections and planning scope
The council received 349 public submissions on the proposal, while an electronic petition with nearly 6,000 signatures called for it to be rejected, according to ABC News. Reported concerns included electricity and water demand, air, noise and light pollution, bushfire risk, and environmental effects.
Council planners recommended conditional approval. In agenda material quoted by ABC News, planners wrote that some objections did not relate directly to provisions of the applicable planning scheme and therefore could not be addressed through the planning approval process. The planners also stated that this limitation did not diminish the importance or legitimacy of those concerns.
Prior to the final vote, UA News reported that planners had proposed conditions including updates to Firmus' bushfire response and emergency-management documentation after an incorrect generator count was reported. UA News said the proposal identified 276 backup diesel generators, with operational limits described for outages, testing, maintenance and emergencies.
A larger Tasmanian buildout
ABC News reports that Firmus is building a separate 104-megawatt AI data centre in St Leonards, a Launceston suburb, and has submitted an application for a 52-megawatt facility at Wesley Vale in Tasmania's north-west.
At 288 megawatts, the approved Long Reach project is substantial infrastructure by data-centre standards, where grid connection, water arrangements, backup generation, environmental controls and local planning approvals are all material deployment constraints. Comparable large-scale AI compute projects commonly face scrutiny beyond conventional building design because accelerator-heavy workloads can create concentrated demand for power and cooling. In this case, council's statutory review and the public debate described by ABC News illustrate the distinction between a local planning decision and broader policy questions about electricity systems and AI infrastructure.
Key Points
- 1George Town Council approved a 288-megawatt Firmus AI data centre, subject to conditions, enabling a major proposed compute facility at Bell Bay.
- 2ABC News reported 349 submissions and a nearly 6,000-signature petition, showing large AI infrastructure projects can face intense local scrutiny.
- 3Comparable accelerator-heavy data centres commonly place power, cooling, backup generation and environmental compliance at the center of deployment decisions.
Scoring Rationale
The council approval covers a large proposed 288-megawatt AI data centre, making it notable compute infrastructure news for practitioners tracking regional capacity. Its importance is tempered by the project remaining subject to council conditions and by limited technical detail on its eventual hardware, power sourcing, or service availability.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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