City of Casey quadruples open data engagement

The City of Casey has quadrupled engagement with its Open Data Exchange after redesigning the platform around customer needs.

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First launched in 2023 to improve transparency and evidence-based decision-making, a subsequent review found many users struggled to interpret the information that the Open Data Exchange contained.

According to the City of Casey’s manager for strategy, innovation, and transformation, Marion Greig, the review highlighted that open data needed to be understandable, relevant, and useful.

“This was particularly important for everyday community members who may not have technical data skills, but still want to understand Council decisions, local trends, services, and community supports,” Greig said.

The redesign was based on the principle that open data should be useful and understandable, not just available. Rather than simply publishing more datasets, Casey prioritised dashboards, mapping, and plain-language insights.

“The enhanced approach placed greater emphasis on user-friendly visualisations, plain-language storytelling, mobile-friendly design, and accessibility for people with varying levels of data and digital literacy,” Greig said.

The transformation has seen engagement lift from 6000 visitors in 2023 to almost 12,000 in the first six months of 2025, and more than 30,000 in the same period for 2026.

"The strongest driver of growth has not been publishing more datasets, but making them easier to understand," Greig said.

On example is the Councillor Transparency page, which presents Council meeting decisions, voting breakdowns, and meeting attendance in a way that helps residents understand how decisions are made.

Greig said the redesign was also improving access to important community services, such as the Community Food Resource Directory, which helps residents locate free and low-cost food support services across Casey.

“This addresses a largely hidden need within the community,” Greig said.

“People experiencing food insecurity may not contact Council directly or may not know support is available. By making these services easy to find through a self-service platform, residents can access help independently and at the point of need.”

Council’s Kindergarten Finder is another example, having been developed in response to identified accessibility challenges.

“Previously there was no simple, map-based way for families to understand which kindergartens were located near them,” Greig said.

“This was particularly challenging for new residents and culturally and linguistically diverse communities who may not be familiar with suburb boundaries or local service locations.”

The Open Data Exchange has been built using the Opendatasoft platform (since rebranded as Huwise), which brings together data, mapping, visualisation, and storytelling tools from across the organisation into a single place, enabling its translation into easy-to-use maps, dashboards and data resources.

The redesign has also benefitted council staff. Building permit data is now downloaded around 9000 times each month, shifting thousands of information requests to self-service and freeing council staff to focus on more complex enquiries.

To further improve accessibility, Council developed an insights page that presents building permit information in a more digestible format, helping both Councillors and community members respond to and investigate local enquiries without requiring access to raw data.

Greig said the next phase would strengthen governance, expand environmental and community datasets, improve spatial analytics, and explore AI-enabled discovery as part of Casey's Smart Casey strategy.