Sydney could see a quarter of its drinking water consumed by data centres by decade's end — roughly 87.5 billion litres annually — as Australia races to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence systems that create far fewer permanent jobs than construction employment suggests.
The stark numbers reveal a troubling pattern. While construction of a single data centre can employ between 1,000 and 10,000 workers depending on size, according to a Brookings Institution report, the facilities become highly automated once operational. A UK government report found these centres require only "a few tens to a few hundreds" of permanent staff, with two British operators citing just 20-88 full-time employees needed on site.
The Resource Drain
Australia has become one of the world's biggest investors in data centres, with 251 already operating nationwide and more in development, according to DataCenters.com. Each 1 megawatt facility consumes 25.5 million litres of water yearly for cooling — more than 10 Olympic swimming pools' worth. The Climate Council reports data centres used 2 per cent of Australia's total electricity last year, a figure projected to triple to 6 per cent by 2030.
These warehouse-like structures house the servers powering Google search AI results, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. They're essential to AI systems. They're also massive resource consumers requiring vast land, water and electricity.
Construction Boom, Permanent Bust
A Virginia state government report examining a 23,226 square metre data centre — roughly three NRL fields — found it employed approximately 50 full-time workers, about half of them contractors. Construction peaks at around 1,500 workers on site, but that lasts only 12 to 18 months.
The Brookings Institution concluded data centre advocates "overstate" potential employment benefits. University of Melbourne senior lecturer M. Reza Hosseini warned the construction boom could worsen Australia's housing crisis by diverting skilled workers. "Data centre construction demands highly specialised trades like high-voltage electricians, industrial cooling technicians and advanced mechanical engineers — jobs that only partly overlap with residential building," he said. "But in a market already stretched thin, even partial overlap matters."
When hyper-scale projects offer premium wages to secure electricians for 18 months, Hosseini noted, "those workers are unavailable for housing."
Premium Pay for Few
More than 1,100 data centre technician positions were listed on SEEK.com at time of writing, with salaries reflecting the specialised nature of the work. A Melbourne technician role offered $149,000 plus a $14,900 annual bonus. An HVAC service technician position for cooling tower work across Sydney and NSW paid up to $55 per hour. A senior facilities technician role in Melbourne advertised $145,000 to operate "a hyper-scale data centre facility due to go live later this year." A day shift electrical technician position in Sydney offered $137,000.
Government Response
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has outlined new expectations for the AI industry, requiring data centres to minimise energy demand and emissions and "secure new and additional clean energy generation or storage to offset demand." He's also calling for transparent reporting on water usage and efficiency, and for operators to build drought and climate change resilience into operations.
These expectations come as communities across Australia debate whether the trade-offs — massive resource consumption for relatively few permanent jobs — justify the infrastructure push.
Why This Matters:
The data centre debate crystallises a fundamental question about Australia's economic future: who benefits and who pays the cost? Communities are being asked to surrender vast quantities of drinking water and electricity — resources already strained by climate change and population growth — for facilities that generate impressive construction employment but minimal permanent jobs. Sydney's projected water consumption alone represents a public resource transfer of staggering proportions. Meanwhile, the construction boom threatens to worsen the housing crisis by pulling skilled workers away from residential building when Australia desperately needs more homes. The premium wages offered by data centre operators — while good for individual workers — create market distortions that price out essential public infrastructure. Without strong regulatory frameworks ensuring these facilities contribute clean energy, transparent water accounting, and genuine community benefits, Australia risks subsidising private AI infrastructure with public resources while receiving little lasting employment in return.