Port Augusta council seeks rates, water answers on Firmus 1300MW

What the council did put on paper is a list of what it calls unanswered questions about the site’s true scale, its proximity to infrastructure and the effect on roads. It also wants a firm guarantee that the development would receive no legislated exemption, concession or rates discount, naming exemptions under the Land Valuation Regulations.

The state’s answer is also on the record. A state government spokesperson told InDaily: “The Government has no plans to introduce tax or council rates exemptions for data centre developments in South Australia.”

The same spokesperson said Infrastructure and Planning Minister Nick Champion would give a full response to the council in due course. InDaily also reports that the state treats data centres as essential infrastructure, which means applications go to the planning minister rather than to local councils. The Premier’s planning-law stance on the data centre wave is covered in our earlier SA story.

The numbers

The proposal covers ten AI data halls, a substation and surrounding infrastructure, 4.5km south-east of Stirling North, according to both outlets.

On water, Firmus has said the development would use 345 megalitres a year. At a September community drop-in session in Port Augusta, the company said its closed-loop cooling system would draw more water when outside temperatures pass 35C, which it estimates at 400 hours a year. Firmus said the cooling system would run on recycled water and rainwater, with no connection to the district’s water mains.

The council has asked how that demand would affect existing community, industrial and environmental water needs.

The 1300MW plan would be one of Firmus’s biggest in Australia. The outlets list a 288MW data centre at Bell Bay in Tasmania and a 1000MW facility at Tailem Bend in South Australia as the other large projects. Both South Australian developments are backed, they say, by a Gunvor Group wholesale energy deal covering 600 megawatts a year over 12 years, which lets Firmus cut electricity use when the wholesale market is under stress.

What’s next

Firmus is yet to formally apply for the project. Once it does, the rates, water, noise and road questions will sit in front of the planning minister, not the council, under the state’s current settings.

The Australian Developer will track the minister’s reply to Port Augusta and the lodged application.

Reporting: InDaily and Startup Daily, 6 November 2026.