Stockland has removed the AI data centre from its plan to redevelop the former Kogarah Golf Course beside the Cooks River at Arncliffe, the developer said on Saturday 7 November, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Residents heard the news that day. Canterbury MP Sophie Cotsis told organisers of Stop the Cooks River AI Project (SCRAP), the residents’ group that campaigned against the facility, about the change at a community forum on the afternoon of 7 November, according to the Herald.
Organiser Paddy Gibson claimed it for the campaign.
“This is an important victory for people power,” Gibson said, as reported by the Herald.
Stockland puts it differently. It maintains the decision was based on prioritising the logistics hub over the data centre, according to the Herald.
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What Was Planned
Stockland and John Boyd Properties are behind the project on the rezoned 18.3-hectare site in Sydney’s south, ABC News reported. The wider precinct is an estimated $3.5 billion logistics development.
The data centre would have been a four-storey, 25,400-square-metre building, sitting alongside warehouses, commercial space and restaurants, according to the Herald.
It drew heavy opposition. The proposal was a state significant development, and of the 665 submissions, 593 objected, three supported it and the rest were neutral, the Herald reported.
Bayside Council objected as well. Its concerns included height, scale, overshadowing of Pemulwuy Park and the protection of five Moreton Bay fig trees, the Herald reported.
The Residents’ Campaign
SCRAP has hundreds of members and has protested since it formed in August, ABC News reported. Gibson cited the river’s fragile ecology, endangered plants and animals, power use and possible water contamination.
The river is called Goolay’yari in local Indigenous languages, according to ABC News.
“People really love this river and we’re just horrified to hear that it could be threatened in this way,” Gibson told ABC News.
Bayside Greens councillor Peter Strong, who led the council’s opposition, said council should have more of a veto on data centres, ABC News reported. He also described what the land has become.
“That space has become a bit of a wildlife sanctuary since nothing much has happened with the old Kogarah Golf Club since they sold it,” Strong said.
A Wider Pushback in Sydney
The Cooks River proposal is not the only one to meet resistance. Other Sydney data centre proposals have recently been withdrawn after local opposition.
The NSW Government released a data centre policy framework in August, ABC News reported. A state parliamentary inquiry has said large data centres should be planned in precincts with shared energy and water infrastructure, according to the Herald. ABC News reported that the government has until February 2027 to respond to that report.
The government’s Investment Delivery Authority has endorsed at least 15 data centre projects in NSW, valued at $51.89 billion, the Herald reported.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles spoke to The Australian Financial Review on the wider question, in comments reported by the Herald.
“What we are very mindful about here is that you’ve got to get the social licence right,” Marles said.
What Happens to the Golf Course Site
The rest of the redevelopment goes ahead. A Stockland spokesperson told ABC News the precinct would proceed without a data centre under an amended concept masterplan.
The spokesperson also set out what the project would deliver to the area.
“The project will also deliver a one-kilometre public foreshore link along the Cooks River and the future delivery of the 14-hectare Pemulwuy Park, as well as local road upgrades and improved active transport connections.”
SCRAP is not finished. The group will keep campaigning against the riverfront logistics hub and for a ban on all new AI data centres, ABC News reported.
More local news is in our Sydney archive.
Sources: ABC News, “Controversial Sydney AI data centre at Cooks River scrapped following community backlash”, 8 November 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-08/sydney-ai-data-centre-scrapped-after-community-backlash/107360592); The Sydney Morning Herald, “Cooks River AI data centre scrapped after local outcry”, 8 November 2026 (https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/cooks-river-ai-data-centre-scrapped-after-local-outcry-20261108-p61ccb.html)
Photo: Edwin H, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Cooks River at Tempe, looking across to the apartments of Wolli Creek, in April 2023. The former golf club site in the story is elsewhere on the river.
