Firmus Technologies, which is seeking to build an AI data centre at the old paper mill site in Wesley Vale, north-west Tasmania, has run into trouble with local authorities after allegedly beginning excavation work without a permit.
Latrobe Mayor Peter Freshney said the council was concerned that some of the works might be occurring beyond the scope of the approved forest practices plan for the site. The approved plan allowed activities such as tree felling, stump removal, mulching and weed suppression. However, Freshney said the council was now seeing excavation to an extent not within that plan.
“If it’s outside of that then there’ll be a stop work issued,” Freshney said. “We’re seeking to understand and confirm whether or not that work is illegal.”
Freshney noted there were transportable buildings, piles of dirt and blue metal on the site. He said Firmus had agreed to cease work while the council conducted further assessments.
In a statement, a Firmus spokesperson said the works were part of general site maintenance, separate from the development application. “These activities do not require planning approval and will take approximately four weeks to complete,” the spokesperson said. “No main works associated with the broader projects will commence until all required approvals are in place.”
The council had earlier deferred a decision on Firmus’s development application for the 52-megawatt data centre, instead asking the Tasmanian government to assess it as a major project.
Freshney said the situation was causing “further angst” in the community, which already held concerns about data centres and evolving technologies. “Proponents more broadly need to be working with planning authorities and local government,” he said.
Firmus is also building two other AI data centres in Tasmania — in Launceston and Long Reach, in the state’s north.