Markets 
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms has established a secret and highly secure new headquarters in Melbourne’s CBD.
The tech giant has just moved into the recently completed 51 Flinders Lane development but will not be raising any signage on or in the building’s public spaces that would identify the company as a tenant.
A spokeswoman for the $US1.72 trillion ($2.4 trillion) group confirmed to this masthead that Meta had now moved into its new Melbourne base, but declined to comment on the company’s secretive approach to its new location.
She said the lack of signage was “company policy”.
Meta’s main office in Australia remains in Sydney, with its local operations led by British executive William Easton.
The $550 million, 51 Flinders Lane building at the Paris end of the Melbourne CBD was developed by real estate investment manager GPT and built by Lend Lease. An official opening function will be held next week.
Other new tenants in the premium building include controversial data centre companies Firmus Technologies, which is seeking to float on the Australian sharemarket this year, and AirTrunk, which was sold to private equity giant Blackstone in 2024 in a deal valued at about $US16 billion ($22.5 billion).
The world’s largest advertising and communications company, WPP, is also a tenant and was this week conducting tours of its new office space and the building’s common areas for its employees.
Australian wealth management company Koda Capital is also moving its operations into the building.
A source connected to the building’s development but unauthorised to speak publicly told this masthead that Meta had secured the 15th floor of the building’s 39-level south tower for its Melbourne base. The tech group was previously based at 720 Bourke Street in the Docklands, which next year will become the new corporate headquarters of the Coles Group.
The tech group’s new home is highly secure. Access to the building is via an app that employees download to their smartphones. The app also provides access to lifts that do not have floor buttons and company-specific office space.
The source said Meta was concerned about the safety of its employees given the tech giant’s operation of social media apps Facebook and Instagram, which face criticism over data privacy, child safety and the way algorithms amplify harmful or polarising material. Meta also owns encrypted messaging service WhatsApp and develops hardware including the likes of smart glasses, which have been banned from use in some public settings.
The source also said Meta wanted to keep the location of its office secret to avoid protests and confrontation with disgruntled users seeking to air grievances and complaints.
The local Australian corporate subsidiary and advertising reseller for Meta is Facebook Australia Pty Ltd. Easton is the company’s only locally based director, with its other two directors based in Singapore and Dublin.
In the 2025 calendar year, Facebook Australia pulled in $1.74 billion from Australian advertisers, but shifted $1.51 billion directly to its overseas parent company as service fees for reselling ad inventory.
Despite generating billions in gross billings, the local operation paid only $48 million in income tax and recorded a bottom-line profit of $61 million. It paid almost double that – $120 million – to its US parent as dividends.
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