2,200 ha High Impact Industrial land under a single public owner.
Read this pad as
Three desks
Developer
Can I get a pad, a connection, and cooling without waiting a decade?
- A transmission line near Woodstock is not a 250 MW connection offer. CopperString in 2032 is not spare capacity sitting in Townsville in 2028.
- Time to power — likely 2035. Earliest plausible assumes CopperString and a BSP land on time and a compute tenant wins capacity. Likely includes approval slip, competing load and fibre.
- Tropical dry/wet bulb is a first-order opex. Liquid, closed-loop and non-evaporative architectures are the rational default. Raw water (Ross Dam pipeline in design) is industrial water, not a municipal-water story, and is not operating.
Financier
What MW is actually deliverable, and what would break the case?
- Announced none MW · 5-year scenario 50–250 MW (preliminary).
- A published connectable MW figure for 2028, 2030, 2032 and 2035.
- No verified financing for a compute campus on this site.
Mayor / state
What is real on this land, and what would fail in public?
- Precinct exists. Compute not applied for.
- 2,200 ha High Impact Industrial land under a single public owner.
- The most important unknown is connectable MW in 2028/2030/2032/2035. Theoretical REZ energy is not an answer.
Deliverable MW
Announced is not deliverable
Ranges are scenarios with an infrastructure class and a confidence band. They are not a grid offer.
Today
0–50 MW
Existing industrial and town load is served. No verified block of tens-to-hundreds of MW is sitting idle for a campus. The low bound is zero for compute; the high bound is a small industrial connection that has not been offered.
Preliminary
+3y
0–100 MW
2028–29: CopperString is not complete. Local solar/BESS are proposed, largely for silicon/manufacturing. A 100 MW compute block by 2028 is not supported by committed infrastructure.
Preliminary
+5y
50–250 MW
2030–31: still before Eastern Link completion (2032 subject to approvals). Only if a dedicated bulk supply point and contracted generation/firming exist — they do not today.
Preliminary
+10y
100–500 MW
Post-2032, CopperString and Flinders REZ change the regional energy geography. That is not the same as 500 MW reserved for compute. Competing industrial load (silicon, hydrogen, minerals processing) is the evidenced demand.
Preliminary
- Existing: 2,200 ha High Impact Industrial land; TCC ownership; prescribed-project status; road works; Powerlink transmission in the geography; NQ SPARK/JCU/Lavarack in the city, not on this pad.
- Committed: CopperString Eastern Link targeting 2032 subject to approvals; Flinders Substation MID approved 23 Dec 2025; QIC to own/deliver CopperString. These serve north-west minerals and regional energy, not a named compute offtake.
- Proposed: Powerlink 275 kV substation at Lansdown (Solquartz/Quinbrook catalyst); three 260 MW / 8 h BESS; up to 500 MW nearby solar primarily for Northern Quartz Campus; raw water pipeline from Ross Dam (in design).
- Speculative: a 100 MW–1 GW+ AI/HPC campus. No proponent, no grid offer, no fibre diversity study, no cooling design.
- Do not report Flinders REZ theoretical renewable potential as Townsville deliverable MW.
Why here
- 2,200 ha High Impact Industrial land under a single public owner.
- Prescribed project status.
- CopperString and Flinders REZ change the 2030s energy geography.
- Port, rail, Bruce Highway.
- Defence, JCU and NQ SPARK create a sovereign-compute story in the same city — a different site than the pad.
What is missing
- A published connectable MW figure for 2028, 2030, 2032 and 2035.
- A compute proponent.
- The 275 kV substation (proposed).
- Operating raw water (in design).
- Diverse fibre to Woodstock and an international path that is not a slogan.
Time to power
Earliest is not likely
- Earliest plausible
- 2032
- Likely
- 2035
Earliest plausible assumes CopperString and a BSP land on time and a compute tenant wins capacity. Likely includes approval slip, competing load and fibre.
Energy
Exists ≠ connectable
A transmission line near Woodstock is not a 250 MW connection offer. CopperString in 2032 is not spare capacity sitting in Townsville in 2028.
NEM Queensland — Powerlink / Ergon (Energy Queensland) · Powerlink (transmission) / Ergon Energy Network (distribution)
Propositions
Proposition A — Lansdown hyperscale AI / HPC campus
Scenarios 100 / 250 / 500 / 1 GW+. None are offers.
What MW can Townsville actually supply in 2028, 2030, 2032 and 2035 — not theoretical renewable potential?
Proposition B — JCU / Defence / sovereign compute cluster
NQ SPARK is a 1,100 m² simulation/HPC facility, not a 100 MW campus. Scale-up is a separate design.
Can the Douglas triangle (JCU, Townsville University Hospital, Lavarack) host sovereign compute without waiting for Lansdown MW?
Workload fit
- AI training / HPCConditionalEnergy-seeking training is the Lansdown proposition A — gated by actual MW and fibre, not land.
- Sovereign / defenceConditionalProposition B sits in the city (JCU, Lavarack, NQ SPARK), not automatically on the 2,200 ha pad.
- Industrial / mining AIConditionalNorth West Minerals Province adjacency via CopperString geography and port.
- Cloud / hyperscaleConditionalPossible as a northern AZ if latency and fibre diversity are solved. They are not yet evidenced.
- AI inferenceFails40 km inland from a regional city is the wrong inference geography versus Brisbane/Sydney metros.
- Edge / regionalFitsTownsville regional edge is real at smaller MW (NQ SPARK class), not Lansdown hyperscale.
Required for scale
- 100 MWPreliminary
A leased lot, a real Ergon/Powerlink offer, two fibre routes, and a cooling design that does not depend on municipal potable water.
- 250 MWPreliminary
Dedicated bulk supply (the proposed 275 kV substation or equivalent), contracted firming, and a generation story that is not just 'REZ nearby'.
- 500 MWUnverified
CopperString in service plus reserved capacity that competing industry does not take; major water and fibre works.
- 1000 MWUnverified
A purpose-built energy system. Not in any committed plan as compute.
Fibre
Lansdown is 40 km inland. City fibre (AARNet at NQ SPARK) is not the same as diverse laterals to Woodstock. No Townsville subsea landing equivalent to Darwin's DJSC is evidenced.
- Brisbane: 15 ms
- Sydney: 25 ms
- Singapore: — ms
- Jakarta: — ms
- Tokyo: — ms
- Auckland: — ms
Thermal / hazards
Tropical northern Australia — wet season, cyclone season, high dry-bulb.
Northern Australia is not scored 'bad because hot'. The model asks what the cooling energy penalty and water pathway actually are. Both are currently unverified in engineering units.
Cyclone: Townsville is a cyclone geography. Resilience is a design parameter for any northern campus, including the inland pad (wind, debris, wet-season access).
Development
- landControl
- TCC owns the precinct; lots by lease/tender. Compute would need a successful allocation.
- planning
- Prescribed project (March 2023) accelerates precinct delivery. That is not a compute approval.
- environmental
- Greenfield industrial with environmental systems from the start (TCC). Lot-level EIS depends on use.
- approvalStatus
- Precinct exists. Compute not applied for.
- remediation
- Greenfield relative to Altona/Botany. Not a petrochemical RAP story.
- contamination
- Not a Qenos-class contamination object. Confirm per lot.
- tenure
- Leasehold via TCC tender.
- construction
- Roads and enabling works underway 2025–26. Not DC construction.
Risk
- power
The most important unknown is connectable MW in 2028/2030/2032/2035. Theoretical REZ energy is not an answer.
- demand
Silicon, hydrogen and minerals processing are the evidenced offtakers.
- fibre
No DJSC-class landing. Diversity to the pad is unverified.
- natural-hazard
Cyclone resilience is a cost and a design standard, not a slogan.
Graph
- lansdown — CONNECTED_TO → Powerlink
- lansdown — NEAR → Woodstock substation geography
- lansdown — SUPPORTED_BY → CopperString Eastern Link
- lansdown — NEAR → Port of Townsville
- lansdown — ASSOCIATED_WITH → NQ SPARK
- lansdown — ASSOCIATED_WITH → James Cook University
- lansdown — NEAR → Lavarack Barracks
- lansdown — CANDIDATE_FOR → AI training campus
- lansdown — OWNED_BY → Townsville City Council
Evidence
- VerifiedExisting
Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct is a 2,200-hectare High Impact Industrial site at Woodstock, about 40 km south of Townsville, acquired by Townsville City Council in 2001.
Townsville City Council · About | Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct · published 2026-01-08 · accessed 2026-09-18
- VerifiedExisting
Lansdown was declared a Prescribed Project by the Queensland Government in March 2023.
Queensland Government · What the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan means for NQ · published 2023-03-07 · accessed 2026-09-18
- High confidenceProposed
A raw water pipeline is in design to deliver water from the existing Ross Dam pipeline. It is not an operating supply to the precinct.
Townsville City Council · About | Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct · published 2026-01-08 · accessed 2026-09-18
- High confidenceCommitted
CopperString Eastern Link is just under 350 km of 330 kV transmission from Reid River near Townsville to Hughenden, with first-stage delivery set for 2032 subject to approvals. Construction-commencement approvals are required by 2028.
Powerlink Queensland · CopperString | Powerlink · published n/a · accessed 2026-09-18
- VerifiedCommitted
On 23 December 2025 Powerlink received Ministerial Infrastructure Designation approval for the $225 million Flinders Substation near Hughenden.
Powerlink Queensland · CopperString | Powerlink · published n/a · accessed 2026-09-18
- High confidenceExisting
Townsville City Council's published proponent list for Lansdown does not include a data-centre or hyperscale compute project. Current named proponents are industrial, silicon, hydrogen, storage and manufacturing.
Townsville City Council · Proponent Projects | Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct · published 2026-08-10 · accessed 2026-09-18
- Moderate confidenceProposed
Solquartz lodged a development application for three 260 MW / 8-hour BESS units (Supernode North), described as a catalyst for a proposed Powerlink 275 kV substation at Lansdown.
Industry Queensland · Solquartz forges ahead as Lansdown takes shape · published 2025-09-22 · accessed 2026-09-18
- Moderate confidenceProposed
Private Energy Partners proposes Lansdown Solar North and West, together up to 500 MW, primarily to power Stage 1 of Northern Quartz Campus. Early development; construction from late 2027 subject to approvals. Excess may be exported to the grid.
Private Energy Partners · Northern Quartz Campus Solar Energy Project overview May 2026 · published 2026-05 · accessed 2026-09-18
- VerifiedExisting
NQ SPARK is a $32.2 million simulation and HPC facility now occupying space at JCU's Bebegu Yumba campus, Douglas. It is not a hyperscale campus.
James Cook University · JCU the new home of NQ Simulation Park · published 2026-05-07 · accessed 2026-09-18
- High confidenceExisting
NQ SPARK sits on AARNet and NBN, 3.4 km from Lavarack Barracks and 12 km from Townsville CBD.
NQ SPARK · Facilities — NQ SPARK · published n/a · accessed 2026-09-18