The abandoned Aussie town set for a $10 billion payday

A remote South Australian town, abandoned by residents for years, has received a staggering $10 billion investment.

Bundey, about 165 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, has not had a single resident since 2021. It has now been chosen as the site of a massive artificial intelligence data centre.

The project, proposed by Nasdaq-listed technology company Iren, would transform the forgotten area into a major digital infrastructure hub and create hundreds of jobs.

The planned 800-megawatt facility would be more than twice the size of any other data centre in the country, the Australian Financial Review reports.

While data centres are often associated with capital cities, Iren’s co-chief executive Daniel Roberts said regional locations were the key to the company’s strategy.

“It’s looking to leverage sunk capex in electrical infrastructure, like we’ve done in Texas, and it’s not capital city or crowded metropolitan areas where land is expensive and there are neighbours,” Roberts told the AFR.

“We are about regional areas.”

Bundey fit the brief perfectly, already having transmission lines, a substation and fibre connections in place, allowing the company access to infrastructure that would otherwise have cost billions.

The development is expected to be rolled out in stages from 2028, with Iren already beginning to assemble a local team.

The company estimates more than 500 jobs will be created during construction, with another 200 on an ongoing full-time basis.

“We’re literally leveraging existing electricity infrastructure that people have already paid for and reimbursing them for that through network payments,” Roberts said.

Founded by Australian brothers Daniel and Will Roberts, Iren has built a global business operating large-scale data centres across Canada and the United States.

The company, now worth more than $30 billion, originally focused on renewable-powered bitcoin mining before moving into AI infrastructure.

The new project marks its first major investment in Australia.

“Iren’s proposed Bundey campus represents a significant investment in our state, with the potential to create hundreds of construction jobs, support long-term skilled roles, and strengthen South Australia’s position as a technology and innovation hub for the Asia-Pacific region,” South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said.