Rural Queenslanders have seen gas projects come and go – but a 725-hectare datacentre poses a whole new level of ‘stupidity’

Denver Kanowski believes the datacentre to be built to power Anthropic’s Claude will go beyond harming the environment by disconnecting people from the things that really matter. Photograph: Andrew Messenger/The Guardian

From the veranda on his bush block, Denver Kanowski has watched resources companies come and go from rural Queensland for 70 years.

The home cost him $800, and lets him live how he likes, in nature. It’s also in the middle of a gasfield, not far from the Linc Energy contamination site, down the road from a coalmine and three gas power plants.