Community · Cooma and the Snowy Monaro

Infrastructure that creates local value

A project of this scale should create benefits beyond the boundary of the site. Rock Flat is an opportunity for a development partner, government and the community to explore a long-term host-community model alongside technical feasibility.

Nothing on this page is a promise. No employment figure, program or contribution has been agreed, and none is stated. These are the areas the conversation would cover, written down now so that they are part of feasibility from the start rather than added at the end.

The principle

A host community should share in what a precinct creates

Data centre policy in Australia is moving towards an expectation that large projects deliver lasting benefit to the region that hosts them. The NSW Data Centre Guidelines of August 2026 make community and regional outcomes part of the assessment, and Victoria’s September 2026 action plan asks for a guarantee of local investment.

Rock Flat is 10 km from Cooma, a town of about 6,700 people, with none of the town within 4 km of the holding. That offers potential access to a regional workforce, contractors and services alongside physical separation from residential areas. What it does not do is guarantee that any of those people, businesses or services are available or willing; that is for a partner to establish with the community.

The six areas below are the ones a host-community model would normally cover. Each is a subject for consultation with a future project partner, the NSW Government, Snowy Monaro Regional Council and the community. Each is written as what could be explored, because that is all that can honestly be said today.

What must be designed together

Who benefits, and how the benefit is measured
What the region needs, in its own words
What a partner can commit to, and when
How the commitments are secured and reported

Local employment

Construction, then operations

A data centre precinct creates two kinds of work: a construction workforce that builds each stage, and a smaller permanent team that runs the campus and its energy systems.

Construction would draw on civil, electrical, mechanical, telecommunications and transport trades over the life of each stage, and the staged nature of the proposition, 50 to 300 MW over time, would spread that work across years rather than concentrating it in one build. Operations would need facility, electrical, mechanical, network, security and site-services roles, and a precinct that includes its own generation and storage would need people to operate those assets too.

How many roles, of what kind, for how long, and how many could be filled locally are questions for a partner’s workforce plan and for the region’s own labour market. No figure is stated here, and none should be quoted from this site.

The kinds of roles a precinct usually needs

Civil and structural construction
Electrical, high-voltage and substation
Mechanical and cooling systems
Battery and generation operations
Fibre and network engineering
Facility and site management
Security and emergency response
Grounds, environment and maintenance

Skills and training

Training partnerships that outlast a build

A precinct that is built in stages over many years is a training opportunity as much as an employer. The partnerships to explore are with TAFE NSW, local schools, universities and private training providers.

TradesElectrical, mechanical and civilApprenticeships and upskilling in the trades a campus and its energy systems need, on a site with work for years. EnergyRenewables and batteriesSolar, wind-connected and battery systems are part of the proposition, and part of a regional skills base the Monaro already has in hydro. NetworksFibre and cyber securityFibre construction, network operations and cyber security, the skills that make a data centre a data centre. OperationsData centre and AI infrastructureFacility operations, cooling and the specialist skills of an AI campus, developed with an operator who knows what they need.

Which programs, with which providers, and funded how, are matters for a partner, the providers and government. The point of naming them now is that a feasibility program can include a skills plan from the beginning.

Local procurement

Work that regional businesses could bid for

A precinct is built and run by many suppliers, not one. Some of that work suits regional businesses, and a local-procurement approach makes sure they hear about it and can bid.

The categories below are the ones most often open to regional suppliers on projects of this kind. Whether Snowy Monaro businesses win that work depends on capability, price and the partner’s procurement rules, none of which is set. What can be designed in is the intent: local-content targets, early notice of packages, and packages sized so that regional firms can compete for them.

Categories that often suit regional suppliers

Civil works and earthworks
Electrical installation
Transport and haulage
Accommodation
Maintenance
Security
Landscaping and land management
Professional services
Food and hospitality

Community energy benefits

Sharing the value of a precinct that brings its own energy

If the precinct adds generation and storage alongside its demand, there are mechanisms through which the host community could share in that value. They are concepts for future consultation, not commitments.

The concepts most often used elsewhere are listed opposite. Each depends on things that are not yet established: whether on-site generation is built, how large it is, how it connects, and what the commercial arrangements with the network and any retailer are. Community energy is therefore a design question for the energy architecture, not an add-on to it, which is why it is raised here rather than after the fact.

Concepts for consultation

Community energy programs
Household energy support
Community batteries
Solar for community facilities
Energy-efficiency programs

Community infrastructure

A regional infrastructure program

A precinct of this scale could support a community or regional infrastructure program. What it would fund, and how much, would be decided with the community and government, not by the proponent alone.

Emergency services

A large site in open grassland has its own emergency planning to do, and the equipment, training and facilities that come with it can serve the district as well as the site.

Recreation and community facilities

The facilities a regional town asks for are usually known to its council long before a project arrives. A program would start from that list.

Education

Schools and training providers are the natural partners for the skills program above, and can be partners for infrastructure too.

Telecommunications

See regional connectivity below: the fibre a precinct needs may be able to serve the district on the way.

Environmental initiatives

Land management, biodiversity and water programs on a holding that is mostly open grazing country, and beyond it.

How it would be secured

Through the planning process, a voluntary planning agreement or a partner’s own commitments. The mechanism is for negotiation; the principle is that it is written down and reported.

Regional projects

Projects the region has wanted that have stalled for want of stable funding

Snowy Monaro Regional Council has a run of community projects that were announced and part funded, then delayed, cut back or cancelled. They are listed here because they show what a long-term, locally negotiated source of funding could be asked to consider. They are not listed to criticise a council working within a constrained budget.

Read this first

Everything in the right-hand column is a concept for consultation. No contribution, fund or project has been offered, agreed or priced, Rock Flat has no approval, and any contribution would depend on a project proceeding. The middle column is what has been publicly reported, to the dates shown. Check it against the council’s own current notices before quoting it.

Community projects in the Snowy Monaro that have stalled, what has been reported, and how a precinct could help
Project	What has been reported	How a precinct could help (concept)
Cooma and Bombala public pools	Closed since refurbishment works began in June 2025, with a NSW Government Stronger Country Communities Fund grant. The council ended the main contract in April 2026 and took the remaining work in house, approving $588,793 to finish the work and then a further $1.2 million on 9 July 2026. Its 9 July update says the pools are unlikely to reopen in 2026, so the 2025/26 summer was lost and a second is likely to be missed. Berridale and Adaminaby pools are free to enter in the meantime.	Capital or operating support through a planning agreement or community fund, guided by the council’s region-wide aquatic strategy, which it expects to adopt by March 2027. Solar and a battery at a pool is the kind of community energy project described above, and could be examined as a way to reduce running costs.
Jindabyne indoor pool	A 2023 roof and ventilation upgrade found additional structural problems and delayed reopening. A council report has since recorded ongoing mould, condensation, corrosion, slip, disability access and chemical handling training issues that the 2022/23 works did not fix.	The same pathway: the aquatic strategy sets the priorities, and any contribution from a precinct follows them rather than choosing them.
Monaro Rail Trail	The vision is a trail along the disused Queanbeyan to Bombala line, which the trail group put at $64 million in 2023. What is funded is 3.5 to 5 km near Bombala under a $1 million federal grant, still awaiting Transport for NSW approval, which the council hopes to receive in late 2026. In February 2026 the council voted 6 to 5 for the Bombala section, and a March motion to reverse it failed. A shared trail and railway corridor was not adopted. Councillors have raised the cost and liability of holding the corridor lease.	A partner could be asked whether it would co-fund stages beyond the first. The fibre a precinct needs could be tested against the same corridor, subject to the rail owner and Transport for NSW. Neither is assumed.
Bombala Arts and Innovation Centre	The planned centre in the council-owned former infants school at 8 to 12 Wellington Street was cancelled for funding reasons. The building is vacant and described in council documents as unfit for public use, costs about $41,000 a year to maintain, and was estimated in 2023 to need about $1 million in repairs, which a councillor has said would now be at least $2 million. In August 2025 the council asked Bombala community groups to develop a plan, with sale or return to the State possible if none emerges.	The skills partnerships described above need teaching and training space in the region, and the building was once a TAFE campus. Whether it or another building suits is for the community, the council and the training providers to decide. Rock Flat is not proposing to take it on.
Local roads	In June 2024 the council proposed, in a draft revision of its delivery program, to stop maintaining some low-traffic roads and reduce non-regulatory services. It maintains about 1,700 km of unsealed and more than 900 km of sealed roads.	Construction traffic is assessed in the traffic study. A partner could be asked to fund upgrades to the local roads its traffic uses, and to look at wider road contributions. The Monaro Highway is a State road managed by Transport for NSW.

The funding context

2023: a rate rise, in part

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal approved a permanent special rate variation of 52.48% over four years, against 68.87% over five requested. It found the council’s need was demonstrated and that its operating ratio stays below the benchmark through the forecast period.

2027: a proposed grant cut

In September 2026 the council was advised it could lose about $5.1 million of its federal financial assistance grant under proposed changes from 1 July 2027. The mayor has said it would have to raise more locally or cut service levels. Feedback to the Grants Commission closed on 9 October 2026.

The test for a host-community model

Whether it adds to what the region can fund, rather than standing in for what governments and the council already provide. That is something the model has to prove in negotiation with the council and the community. This page cannot claim it.

What a precinct could be asked to consider

Capital for a stalled project, where the community and council ask for it
Operating support as well as capital, because a facility that is built but cannot be run does not help anyone
Works delivered in kind through the precinct’s own procurement
Solar and batteries on community facilities
A fund the community helps govern

A local precedent for the last of these exists. The Boco Rock wind farm’s Community Enhancement Fund is financed from a share of wind farm revenue and assessed by a committee that includes community members, councillors and the operator. It awarded more than $280,000 to 35 Snowy Monaro community groups in 2025. It shows the mechanism, not the scale a precinct could support.

What it cannot do

Pay for anything before a project is approved and proceeds
Replace the council’s core funding or its own priorities
Guarantee any amount: no figure is stated here, and none should be quoted from this site
Choose the projects, which is for the council and the community

Sources for this section

Reported facts only, to the dates shown. Each link opens in a new tab.

Pools. About Regional, council ends pool upgrade contract, 21 April 2026 (opens in a new tab); About Regional, more than $500k approved to finish pool work, 4 May 2026 (opens in a new tab); About Regional, summer reopening of Monaro pools in doubt, May 2026 (opens in a new tab); Mirage News, Bombala and Cooma pool upgrade update, 9 July 2026 (opens in a new tab); Snowy Monaro Regional Council, further reopening delays, 23 January 2026 (opens in a new tab); Snowy Monaro Regional Council, upgrades on the way for Cooma Pool, 2 June 2025 (opens in a new tab); Snowy Monaro Regional Council, Jindabyne Pool completion date delayed, 15 May 2023 (opens in a new tab).

Rail trail. About Regional, future of Monaro Rail Trail revealed, 25 March 2026 (opens in a new tab); Monaro Post, council to reconsider rail trail motion (opens in a new tab); Snowy Monaro Regional Council, Monaro Rail Trail project page, May 2026 update (opens in a new tab); Snowy Monaro Regional Council, Monaro Rail Trail set to get underway in Bombala, 2 August 2024 (opens in a new tab); ABC News, bikes versus trains stalemate over the rail corridor, 24 August 2023 (opens in a new tab).

Bombala building and roads. About Regional, future of historic Bombala building in doubt, 30 August 2025 (opens in a new tab); About Regional, council proposes to stop maintaining low-traffic roads, 2 June 2024 (opens in a new tab).

Funding context and precedent. IPART, Snowy Monaro special variation determination, 2023-24 (opens in a new tab); Monaro Post, council stands to lose $5 million funding, 15 September 2026 (opens in a new tab); About Regional, councils warn of significant impact from proposed federal funding cuts, 12 October 2026 (opens in a new tab); Mirage News, Boco Rock Community Enhancement Fund awardees for 2025 (opens in a new tab).

Regional digital connectivity

Could the precinct’s fibre serve the region too?

A hyperscale campus needs high-capacity, physically diverse fibre. Building it may create the opportunity to improve digital connectivity for the district along the same routes.

Whether that is possible depends on what telecommunications feasibility finds: which carriers, which routes, what capacity, and on what terms. Telstra’s own markers place an optical fibre cable on the holding’s boundary and NBN Co has identified an asset in the area, but capacity, diversity and carrier options are all still to be established. The question for feasibility is whether the investment the precinct needs can be shaped so that the region benefits from it.

What could be investigated

Diverse fibre routes that pass through the district
Capacity for regional providers on new infrastructure
Connectivity for community facilities and services

Impacts and consultation

How noise, visual impact and traffic would be assessed

A data centre above 15 MW in New South Wales is State Significant Development. Its environmental impact statement must assess noise, visual impact, traffic, water, biodiversity, heritage and the other matters the Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements set, with community consultation as part of the process.

Noise

Cooling plant, generation and battery systems have noise profiles that are modelled against the nearest sensitive receivers. Here those are scattered rural dwellings, which must be mapped; the town itself is more than 4 km away.

Visual impact

The holding is open grassland on the Monaro high plains with the Monaro Highway through it, so buildings would be visible from the road. Siting, height, colour and landscaping are assessed against defined viewpoints. The current height control on the land is 9 m, so height is itself a planning matter.

Traffic

Construction and operational traffic on the Monaro Highway, a State road managed by Transport for NSW, would be assessed in a traffic and transport study with a construction traffic management plan. Heavy-vehicle access to the gate is not yet confirmed.

Consultation is not optional: it is a requirement of the assessment, and the community’s response is part of what the NSW Government weighs. The intent here is to start it earlier than the rules require, with the feasibility work rather than after it. The planning pathway →

The key facts

What rarely sits on one holding, and what each fact does not yet establish

Land: up to 837.7 haAbout 2,070 acres across 11 lots as supplied. Room to investigate data halls, solar, storage and setbacks; the developable footprint is still to be established. The site →
Scale: 50 to 300 MWThe scale of data centre development being investigated, in stages. Not confirmed grid capacity. The opportunity →
Electricity: 132 + 66 kVBoth lines cross the holding on Lot 1, and regional wind already exports on the 132 kV. Available capacity is untested. Power →
Gas: Eastern Gas PipelineHigh pressure transmission main crosses Lot 1, confirmed present by Jemena. Pressure, offtake and terms are for Jemena to answer. Energy →
Data and connectivity: Optical fibre at the boundaryTelstra’s own fibre markers on the fence line, and an NBN asset identified. Capacity, diversity and carrier options to establish. Connectivity →
Water: Designed for low waterA cool climate at about 900 m may support closed loop or hybrid cooling. No supply has been demonstrated. Water →
Location: 10 km to CoomaA town of about 6,700 people, none of it within 4 km: potential access to workforce and services with separation from residential areas. Canberra 126 km, Sydney 406 km, Melbourne 630 km by road. Distance from Cooma →
Renewables: Wind on the line, solar to investigateBoco Rock wind exports on feeder 97R today. On-site solar and storage are opportunities to investigate; no supply is committed to this site. Energy →

Presence and position only. No electrical capacity, gas capacity, telecommunications service, water supply or planning approval is claimed, secured or offered.

Next step

Move from opportunity to feasibility

Rock Flat is seeking engagement with experienced digital infrastructure, energy and investment partners to undertake the next stage of technical and commercial feasibility. Detailed title, infrastructure, utility and commercial information is available to qualified parties.

Discuss feasibility The data room