In an exciting step for the Northern Territory’s digital economy, construction has commenced on a new data centre in Darwin.
Australia’s leading data centre provider, NEXTDC Limited, is building D1 Darwin, an $80 million critical infrastructure project that will house approximately 1,500 racks and support up to 8MW IT load.
The project is within walking distance from the new Charles Darwin University CBD campus.
Construction is being managed by Kapitol Group NT, and is expected to create and support up to 200 jobs.
This new NEXTDC data centre will offer critical digital infrastructure to support all levels of business and government in addition to an innovation centre providing collaborative spaces to enable Territory technology innovators, start-ups and growth companies.
D1 Darwin will utilise domestic and subsea cables into Darwin to securely connect and support data storage for Australian and overseas customers, and will offer national and international connectivity through the VOCUS’ Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore sub-sea cable project which was lit earlier this year.
There is already significant customer interest in D1 Darwin, with the facility supporting strong growth for the digital economy in the region.
It is anticipated the first stage of D1 Darwin will be operational in mid-2024.The addition of new sub-sea and terrestrial cables into Darwin is expected over the next few years which will support the future expansion as NEXTDC progress the remaining planned stages of this critical infrastructure facility.
Quotes attributed to Chief Minister Natasha Fyles:
“The Territory Labor Government is focused on delivering and finding quality project, with long term positive outcomes.
“Darwin is located within 50 milliseconds to more than 500 million people and offers a secure and stable location for digital, data, technology and telecommunication companies to start-up, relocate or expand their operations to service the local, Australian and Indo Pacific markets.
“This $80 million investment, will help diversify and strengthen the Territory economy. Supporting over 200 jobs during construction and 20 jobs when operational, this data centre will spur the growth of tech businesses and many government agencies here in the Territory and create digital careers for locals.”
Quotes attributed to NEXTDC CEO Craig Scroggie:
“This data centre will be a first-of-its-kind for Darwin, enabling the Northern Territory economy with world class digital infrastructure, combined with secure, low-latency access to global cloud platforms to fully maximise the benefits of technology innovation such as Gen A.I, automation and robotics.
“As our flagship data centre in NT, D1 Darwin forms part of NEXTDC’s strategy to leverage the next frontier of Edge computing and for the region, it is a big step towards national digital equity.
“Its proximity to Darwin’s CBD and direct access to the major submarine cable infrastructure, means legacy industries such as mining and resources alongside the emerging defence sector can have real-time responsiveness to operational and mission-critical needs, fully capturing the value of emerging technologies.”
Northern Territory Government
