MEDIA RELEASE — Darling Downs Environment Council
For immediate release: Tuesday 15th September 2026
AI industry leaders say slow down. Queensland is being asked to approve Australia’s biggest AI data centre with no manual off switch for Australia.
Darling Downs Environment Council is calling on Western Downs Regional Council and the Queensland Government to require a human-controlled emergency shutdown system, a greenhouse gas assessment and a secured water supply before deciding on the 725-hectare Western Downs Digital Park at Kogan.
The call follows reporting by the ABC that the creator Claude; Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, has urged the AI industry to slow down, warning that a swarm of AI agents could be capable of “taking over the entire internet” within six to 12 months. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk both publicly agreed, and more than 1,000 employees of leading AI companies have petitioned the US government to help “pace the frontier”.
The Kogan proposal, lodged with Western Downs Regional Council on 17 August by Singapore-backed Zerra DC, would be the largest data centre in Australia. Its own planning report says it is built for “cloud computing, artificial intelligence, advanced data processing”. No customer has been named.
“The people building this technology are asking governments to put the brakes on, and here we are being asked to approve the biggest AI facility in the country with no ability for anyone outside the company to turn it off manually in the very plausible situation of rogue AI hostilities,” said Ahri Tallon, Darling Downs Environment Council.
“This site is designed to keep running when the grid goes down. Batteries carry it for two hours, generators hold 24 hours of fuel, and one stage could run off a gas well on the property. Switching off the power lines would not switch this place off.”
DDEC has reviewed all 870 pages of the application. Its briefing found:
- No greenhouse gas assessment at all. On DDEC’s estimate from the applicant’s own design figures, the four buildings would use 11 to 19 terawatt-hours of electricity a year — a quarter to 40 per cent of everything delivered through Queensland’s transmission network last financial year — with emissions of roughly 8 to 13 million tonnes a year at the current Queensland grid mix.
- No secured water supply. Construction needs about 522,000 litres a day for four to six years, and each building needs 26.9 million litres just to fill its cooling system. Where that water comes from is left to “detailed design”, yet the application form states no water will be taken.
- The applicant’s own consultants predict breaches of noise and air limits at the three nearest homes and at the 1,500-person workers’ camp.
- The application contradicts itself. The electrical design is for six buildings and 2,160 megawatts; only four buildings and 1,440 megawatts are applied for. The claim of 1,400 ongoing jobs is about three times what the applicant’s own traffic report assumes.
“Our region has carried this state’s energy infrastructure for decades. We are not against digital investment, and we are not against this industry,” said coordinator Ahri Tallon.
“What we are against is being asked to sign off on something this big before the basic questions are answered: where the power comes from, where the water comes from, who pays for the roads, and who can stop it if something goes wrong.”
DDEC is asking Council to require, before any decision:
- A manual shutdown system with hard-wired switches in at least multiple locations, including outside the site fence, held by fire and police, the grid operator and local and state disaster coordinators and government executives — so that any one of them can stop the facility, and restarting takes the agreement of two independent public authorities.
- A full greenhouse gas assessment and a commitment to match all electricity use with new renewable generation that is not located on prime farm land or biodiversity habitat.
- A secured water plan, with entitlements and drought triggers.
- A social impact assessment and a community benefit agreement, as wind and solar projects in the region are already required to negotiate.
- One consistent description of the project that answers the details needed to be accountable, publicly notified again before Council decides.
DDEC is also urging the Queensland Government not to allow the decision to be taken out of local hands. The developer is seeking “prescribed project” status, which can allow the Coordinator-General to step in and decide — a decision that cannot be appealed. State significance should be reserved for projects of direct public benefit and that are under public ownership, not private investments.
“Every safeguard in this application is promised for later, after the approval, when the community has no standing to see it or challenge it,” said Ahri Tallon. “The time to ask for protections is now.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- DDEC’s full briefing on the application is available on request. Energy and emissions figures are DDEC estimates calculated from the applicant’s stated IT load (1,440 MW), its design power usage effectiveness of 1.5, Powerlink’s 2025 Transmission Annual Planning Report, and the National Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2025.
- Application reference 030.2026.513.001, Western Downs Regional Council, lodged 17 August 2026.
- ABC News, “Anthropic boss Dario Amodei calls for AI slowdown, Altman and Musk agree”, 13 September 2026.
Ahri Tallon
Coordinator Darling Downs Environment Council
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