It’s the two words that have been plastered across every news outlet, and everyone has a different opinion on them: data centres.
For the Yass Valley community, Yass Valley Council will consider a Mayoral Minute to occur on Thursday, calling for stronger strategic planning protections and a fair regional return after Yass was identified by Transgrid as a potential location for 1-2 GW of new electrical load associated with data centres.
The Transgrid Transmission Annual Planning Report has identified Yass, Wagga and Newcastle as potential locations for large electrical beds. The document, however, does not address any competing needs or constraints of the Yass Valley, including water security, housing growth, agriculture, employment land, tourism and emergency management.
The Mayoral Minute will propose Council expands its strategic planning work to examine the implications of large-scale data centre development, including any potential impact on the Yass Dam, future housing capacity, agricultural and employment land, infrastructure, bushfire and emergency-management capacity, noise and community amenity.
The Mayoral Minute will also propose that any future data centre demonstrate a secure, independent water supply, and will not rely on Yass Valley’s existing potable water allocation.
Yass Valley Mayor, Jasmin Jones, said the identification of Yass makes it “imperative that Council establishes its position early — particularly as planning and development approvals remain primarily matters for State and local government.”
“There is an important distinction in this national conversation. National Cabinet can set national standards and expectations, but the Commonwealth does not have a general constitutional power to decide where a data centre is built in a local community,” said Mayor Jones.
“The Prime Minister himself has acknowledged that planning issues are the preserve of State and local government. The Federal Government can help set the national framework, but it cannot simply designate Yass as a host region — and equally, it cannot be relied upon to protect Yass Valley from inappropriate development.”
Mayor Jones said that makes the decisions being made in NSW particularly important.
“That is why this conversation belongs right here in NSW and in Yass Valley. We need to make sure our State planning framework protects the future we are actually planning for — not simply responding to whatever electrical demand appears on a transmission map.”
“National Cabinet is talking about making sure data centres are built in the right places. For Yass Valley, the right place cannot simply mean a place with available power. It has to mean a place with the water, land, infrastructure, emergency capacity and community support to make it sustainable.”
Mayor Jones said Yass Valley’s water security must remain a non-negotiable consideration.
“Yass Valley is a growing regional community. We are planning for around 27,000 people by 2036, potentially more if our Settlement Strategy review fully realises our potential to build future communities,” she said.
“Our community has invested heavily in securing water for homes and future growth. We cannot allow a new industrial demand of this scale to compete with the water we need for our people, our farms and our future.”
The Mayoral Minute notes that the existing water supply allocation from Yass Dam has already been committed to identified residential development within the current Settlement Strategy. Council is also reviewing its Water Source Strategy and considering options for additional long-term supply.
Mayor Jones said the question was not only what Yass Valley might be asked to host, but what the community would receive in return.
“We have seen what happens when regional communities host major infrastructure and are left waiting and wanting,” she said.
“Renewable energy projects are industrialising our landscapes while HumeLink is carving a corridor through host communities — giving out sugar hits of funding during construction and no progress towards even a modest compensation community benefit beyond completion despite two years of strong advocacy and negotiation.
“At times it feels like Burke and Wills — we are still waiting for a drop of relief, the return from the journey, while the impacts are already on the ground.”
The Mayor said any future data centre development would need to be fundamentally different.
“If Yass Valley is expected to host an industry that consumes significant amounts of land, power, water and infrastructure, then there must be a meaningful return to the region.”
“If data centres are going to draw on regional resources to service a much bigger economy, regional communities should share properly in the value they help create.”
The proposed Mayoral Minute also calls for large-scale data centres to be directed towards appropriate locations with the necessary water, industrial land, infrastructure and emergency-management capacity, while recognising Yass Valley’s existing contribution through State Significant Development energy projects.
Mayor Jones said regional collaboration should not be ruled out, provided it delivers genuine infrastructure and water security benefits to Yass Valley.
“Regional collaboration should not be out of the question — but any solution has to work for the community that is being asked to host it,” she said.
“If water needs to come from outside our shire, such as the Capital – then the infrastructure to bring that water here should be a benefit, not a cost to our community. It should piggyback the water infrastructure we need for population growth and future housing, rather than compete with it.”
“If there is going to be a data centre in Yass Valley, it should be within a properly planned finite and corralled industrial zone, with the infrastructure, water and emergency-management requirements dealt with upfront — not allowing individual projects to pick off agricultural or future housing land.”
Although the Mayor said Council was not opposed to investment, firm boundaries and a stance against the creation of data centres could impact economic growth within the region through job availability and housing demand.
Across the country, the implementation of data centres have created a divide between those in favour and those against.
In the ACT, the ACT Greens propose data centres be built next to public pools, to create ease of access to water in a way that directly benefits the public.
The motion has raised some concerns from other politicians and residents alike.
Mayor Jones said they wish for a set of concrete rules to be established before any individual projects were proposed.
“This is about getting ahead of the issue, not waiting until a proposal lands on our doorstep,” she said.
“We need the State, Transgrid and industry to understand that Yass Valley is not an empty connection point on an electricity map. It is a community with finite water, productive agricultural land, a housing future and a right to benefit from the infrastructure and resources it provides.
“If we are going to host, then we need the levers to make sure our community comes first — our water security, our housing growth and our economic future — and that there is a genuine and lasting regional dividend.”
Council has previously supported a Local Government NSW conference motion relating to data centres and has established an internal working group across Planning, Water, Infrastructure, Economic Development and Emergency Management to examine the strategic implications of potential large-scale data centre development.
NEXT WEEK We will look at the positives data centres can bring to regional areas. Yass may be in line for more than it thinks.
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