Plans have been lodged for new $80m Darwin data centre

The $80m high-security centre on the outskirts of Darwin’s CBD will dramatically transform the city’s entry landscape, if it gets the final tick of approval.

A new data centre will revitalise a largely neglected part of Darwin if it gets the green light from the development authority.

Brisbane-based company NEXTDC wants to build the $80m centre near the intersection of Harvey Street and Ryko Court on the periphery of Darwin’s CBD.

The proposed data centre consists of a single data hall, internal administration and ancillary areas, mechanical and generator plant, vehicle access, manoeuvring and carparking, landscaping and pedestrian access.

An artist impression of how the new centre will look from Garramilla Boulevard.

Located at the end of the Ryko Court cul-de-sac, town planners Cunnington Rosse said the building design would replace a site that has “associated access and frontage constraints”, to be replaced with an “attractive and interesting building”.

The site is bordered to the east and southeast by Garramilla Boulevard.

The data centre was announced last March and the development application was lodged with the government on July 14, with submissions closing Friday.

The proposed centre site facing north-east along Garamilla Bulevard.

NEXTDC was the successful bidder in an expressions of interest process launched by the NT government to build and operate a data centre in Darwin.

The planning application said NEXTDC would work at growing the NT’s digital ecosystem around the data centre.

Originally scheduled for construction last October, NEXTDC chief executive Craig Scroggie said at the time significant economic benefits would follow when the centre opened.

He also flagged further projects in the Northern Territory for the company.

Entrance point to the new data centre.

“We see this as the beginning, as an investment over the next couple of decades,” Mr Scroggie said.

Darwin’s proximity to Asia provides opportunities for digital companies to invest in the Territory.

Last week Vocus finalised construction of the 1000km fibre-optic cable linking the Territory with South-East Asia via the 7700km Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore system.

Data centres house, in high security facilities, telecommunications network and computing and storage resources that enable the delivery of shared applications and data-critical infrastructure to support the digital economy.

The cloud lives in a data centre.

Created in 2012 after supdvision of three CBD lots, Ryko Court is a 65m long cul-de-sac connecting to the north-east of Harvey Street at the northern edge of Darwin’s CBD.