Data centres meeting will be held at Tailem Bend next week
Firmus Technologies will answer questions from Murraylands residents about its plans for the region.
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A public meeting will be held at Tailem Bend next Wednesday night to give locals an insight into a proposal to build a data centre just outside the town.
Firmus Technologies, the company behind one of two proposals in the area, will be represented at the meeting at Tailem Bend Town Hall.
An exact time and format are expected to be finalised by this Friday, July 10.
This story will be updated with those details.
The Coorong council’s acting mayor, Jonathan Pietzsch, pushed for the public meeting when he met with representatives of Firmus last Friday.
“There’s been a lot of chatter lately about data centres and what it’s going to mean for our region, and Tailem Bend particularly,” he said in a video published by the council.
“We’ve asked (Firmus) to answer some of the concerns from community about what this development means for our district, but also talk about some of the opportunities that might present for local businesses and for employment.”
Based on what he had seen so far, though, Cr Pietzsch told Murray Bridge News the proposal looked “nowhere near as scary” as the water- and energy-sucking data centres which had developed a bad reputation in the United States.
Murray Bridge News understands that the company’s proposal could create up to 400 permanent jobs in the Coorong district, plus hundreds more during construction.
Murray Bridge News understands that the Firmus proposal could create up to 400 permanent jobs in the Coorong district, plus hundreds more during construction.
Firmus’ proposed data centre would be built somewhere north of Tailem Bend, around Kepa or Naturi.
No exact address for the development has yet been publicly revealed, as no development application has yet been filed with the state government.
A second proposal, by a company called Skylab Australia, calls for another data centre and a renewable energy project to be built southeast of Tailem Bend, at Cooke Plains.
