Australian company Sharon AI buys former Visy paper mill site at Ettamogah

Ettamogah land sale to AI company raises health and environmental protection concerns In short: Australian-owned AI company Sharon AI has purchased the former Visy paper mill site at Ettamogah. Albury residents have raised concerns about the sale. What's next? The company is yet to disclose what it plans to do with the site, but says it will undertake appropriate community consultation. Albury residents have raised concerns about a major industrial site being sold to a company specialising in artificial intelligence (AI). Sharon AI, based in Sydney and New York, has confirmed it has bought the former Visy paper mill site at Ettamogah, north of Albury. The Australian-owned company describes itself as a high-operating computing company "neo-cloud" that rents out its infrastructure and equipment for AI use. "Sharon AI has purchased a paper mill in Ettamogah, with plans to return the underutilised brownfield site into a running operation that benefits the local community,"a spokesperson said. "We will say more at a later date." The company would not disclose what it intends to develop at the site, but said it would undertake appropriate community consultation. "Sharon AI is committed to building real-world infrastructure throughout Australia, which creates jobs and a positive impact to local communities," the spokesperson said. Locals sceptical Katie Lucantonio lives near the Ettamogah site and said she was concerned about the uncertainty of a potential data centre in the area. "The way I look at it … it's like if Coca-Cola were to purchase it, I would expect there to be some sort of [soft-drink] manufacturing there," Ms Lucantonio said. "Health is the number one [concern]. "Second to that is the environment, and the health of the flora [and] fauna. "It's surrounded by native bushland … and further on, you've got farms nearby. "What I've seen … is if you don't get on the front foot of these issues, particularly in pre-planning stages, there's no, or very little, community consultation." NSW Liberal Albury MP Justin Clancy said the local community had a right to ask questions if a large-scale data centre development was planned. "There are two aspects to this that we need to look at," Mr Clancy said. "Obviously one is we know that our use of data and AI is increasing significantly at a rapid rate in this nation and right across the globe, and there's certainly a call there to make sure that we as a nation have sovereign capability. "We need to balance that with, on the other hand, legitimate questions around energy usage, water usage and also local amenity." Earlier this year, the NSW government announced measures to encourage data centre builders to follow new guidelines to fast-track projects. If builders met environmental and efficiency standards and avoided net costs to consumers, the government promised to evaluate applications within 75 days. Proposed legislation for the program is set to be debated in parliament later this year. Albury Mayor Kevin Mack said he could not comment on private land ownership, but any development would be assessed through normal planning processes. "Albury is open for business, and we welcome investment that creates jobs and supports our growing regional economy," Cr Mack said. "Our role is to ensure the right planning and infrastructure are in place so opportunities can be realised when they arise." Data centres are 'nothing new' The Australian Energy Market Operator said about 3 per cent of Australia's electricity was consumed by data centres this past financial year, a figure set to increase to 13 per cent by 2035. Johanna Lim from the University of Sydney's United States Studies Centre said the substantial resources needed to operate data centres were cause for community concern. "While the services that these data centres are providing are usually at a national or even global level, many of these impacts tend to be felt more locally, and I think that's a key driver of this debate," she said. "Regional areas that have lots of land can provide for these larger sites, and that can be easier to accommodate compared to more land-constrained areas like Sydney and Melbourne." She said more community pushback will change how data centre companies conduct themselves through the planning process. "I think the important thing here is that for these data centres, community engagement starts early, before decisions have effectively already been made, and there's a level of transparency that needs to be done, or that needs to be presented to communities," she said. Albury is already home to one data centre, located near Albury Airport.