An outback town with no residents is about to get a whole lot busier after a major tech firm signed a big deal to build an enormous facility.
The town of Bundey, about two hours northeast of Adelaide, registered just three residents in the 2016 census, and zero residents in the 2021 census.
But an army of workers will soon descend on the remote locality to construct a massive AI data centre.
A massive data centre is planned for Bundey, a South Australian town with no residents but abundant renewable energy thanks to recently-constructed eletrical infrastructure (pictured). Picture: Google Eart
The 800 megawatt facility will be larger than any data centre currently in operation in Australia, and the first built down under by Australian-founded and Nasdaq-listed company Iren.
The firm currently operates four data centres in the US and Canada and has another two in development in Texas and Oklahoma, which will each have double the capacity of the South Australian facility once online.
Iren’s Childress data centre in Texas is the company’s largest in operation, with a 750MW capacity. Picture: Supplied
The company builds data centres for high-performance computing, originally focusing on bitcoin mining before pivoting to AI training and inference as demand soared.
The company uses 100% renewable energy such as wind, solar and hydro to power its data centres, which was part of the reason Bundey was chosen as the site for its next facility.
Iren co-chief executive Daniel Roberts said the location offered an abundance of clean energy as well as support from the state government.
Iren last month announced a partnership with Nvidia, the world’s largest company, to accelerate the deployment of Nvidia equipment in data centres, which that Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang (pictured) said would expand access to compute globally. Picture: Getty
“The Bundey campus is able to serve global and regional AI demand, as well as South Australia’s own growing need for AI compute,” he said.
The site takes advantage of a major electricity transmission node recently constructed at Bundey, which links multiple renewable energy zones.
The project is expected to create 500 jobs during construction and 200 jobs on an ongoing basis, transforming the quiet corner of South Australia into a hive of activity.
The data centre will take advantage of ample renewable energy supplied by the Bundey Substation. Picture: Consolidated Power Projects
South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas said the Bundey facility strengthened the state’s position as an innovation hub.
“Data centres are a significant economic opportunity, which can bring high-quality jobs, stronger renewable energy infrastructure, and new opportunities for regional communities,” he said.
The remote location of the data centre avoids much of the backlash against the enormous power-hungry buildings that has rocked the booming industry in recent months.
The last property in Bundey to sell on realestate.com.au was this 146 hectare rural landholding which traded for $245,000 in 2021. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Concerns over rampant water consumption and strains on the energy grid have led to protests against data centres across the globe.
But construction is powering ahead in Australia, with more than 260 data centres currently in operation and dozens more in the pipeline.
Investment in new data centres drove an almost tripling in capital expenditure in the IT sector in the past year, according to recent figures released by the ABS, with approximately $8.7 billion spent in the first quarter of 2026.
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