Living in the shadow of a data centre: Residents demand compensation

详细摘要

Residents living across the road from a massive Melbourne data centre are demanding compensation, saying their homes are now exposed to noise, pollution and the risk of falling…

Residents living across the road from a massive Melbourne data centre are demanding compensation, saying their homes are now exposed to noise, pollution and the risk of falling property values.

For Sebastian Leith, his home of five years was meant to be a long-term investment.

But living just metres from a huge data centre in Melbourne’s West Footscray has left him worried about what his property might be worth in the future.

The facility known as M3, operated by technology giant NEXTDC, sits directly across the road from his front door. And with plans to expand it dramatically, Leith fears things could get even worse for him and his neighbours.

“I can’t afford to have a significant drop in the value of my property,” he said.

“I’ve bought this at a rather late stage in life, and I have a fairly significant mortgage on it.

“I can’t, at this stage of my life, afford to lose a whole lot of equity in something and blow off a couple of hundred thousand bucks and go somewhere else and start up again.”

Leith is one of a growing number of residents questioning the rapid expansion of Australia’s data centre industry, as more communities find themselves living alongside infrastructure that is becoming increasingly important to modern life.

Data centres power everything from online banking and streaming services to artificial intelligence. And, as Australia looks to become a major player in the global digital economy, the industry is growing at an extraordinary rate.

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