More than 60 residents attended the community meeting in Darwin last night.\u00a0 (ABC News: Roxanne Fitzgerald)<\/p>\n
Dozens of Darwin resident have voiced strong opposition and "extreme concern" about an influx of data centres\u00a0planned for the Northern Territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many of those who attended a community meeting last night called for a moratorium on the industry until new regulations were in place.<\/p>\n
The NT government says 12 data centre developers are eyeing the territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fears about water use, noise and gas-powered energy have fuelled calls for a moratorium on plans for a wave of data centres in the Northern Territory, with Darwin residents voicing strong opposition at a community meeting last night.<\/p>\n
Harvey Jupp was among the dozens of people who turned up to the information session, held by Independent Member for Johnston, Justine Davis, questioning the rapid expansion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
"These data centres basically work for big tech corporations," he said.<\/p>\n
Harvey Jupp was among the locals to voice his concerns in Nightcliff. (ABC News: Roxanne Fitzgerald)<\/p>\n
"They do absolutely nothing for the communities that they sit in other than extract vast amounts of resources and export our data.<\/p>\n
"They don't create any long-term jobs, and my fear is if they start popping up in the NT, we're going to see multiple centres in the near future and they're going to completely destroy the environment that we live in."<\/p>\n
A data centre is a large building that houses infrastructure that keeps the online world functioning.<\/p>\n
They require massive computing power and as a result, need a lot of land and consume large amounts of water and electricity.<\/p>\n
Last month, NT Trade, Business and Asian Relations Minister Robyn Cahill said she wanted to make the Territory "the data centre capital of the globe", powered by gas from the Beetaloo Basin, which could start producing gas for the first time within weeks.<\/p>\n
Next DC announced plans for its first data centre in the Darwin CBD in 2021, with a second facility now under construction. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n
She said 12 data centre proponents were already eyeing the NT and had the government's full support.<\/p>\n