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Recent developments

23/06/2025 - Data.gov.au uplift released

The Data.gov.au enhancements are live. The following changes have occurred.

Security upgrades

Your data and information safety is our top priority, and we have strengthened our security measures. All custodian accounts responsible for managing datasets are required to setup Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on their next login. This will ensure the identity of the account owner and protect from unauthorised account access.

Single accounts used by multiple members within a team are no longer viable and each team member will have to setup their own account. The support team is available to assist with this at support@data.gov.au.

Users looking to only access the available data will continue to not need an account on the platform.

Styling upgrades

We have brought a more cohesive, consistent and fresh look to the Data.gov.au experience. Custodians and end users feel like they are on the same platform no matter the functions they are performing.

Accessibility improvements

We have ensured the platform is more inclusive and user friendly for everyone. Improving the available functions to discover, understand and access the data available on the platform. Our upgraded search enables users of a wide range of skills to locate the data they are looking for faster and more efficiently.

NationalMap

NationalMap is being decommissioned at the end of June 2025. Map previews for datasets have been removed on Data.gov.au and there is no plan to replace geographic visualisations with another service. More information on the decommission and alternative tools for visualisation can be found on the Geoscience Australia website.

URLs and MAGDA API

As part of our approach to bring consistency to our platform we have ensured all our data locations and API endpoints are managed by the one system. This means certain URLs and API endpoints no longer function and there is no automatic re-direct processes in place. All data will still be available, some URLs or API queries may need to be updated;

  • URLs containing ".au/dataset/..." do not work now.
  • API queries containing ".au/api/..." do not work now.
  • URLs containing ".au/data/dataset/..." continue to work.
  • API queries containing ".au/data/api/..." continue to work.

Rest assured, the core functionalities you rely on - like uploading or updating datasets, dataset visibility*, and CKAN API functionality - continue to operate as usual, your experience remains seamless and reliable.
* Available datasets continue to grow as the platform harvests applicable open data portals.

If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team at support@data.gov.au.

Known issues

The Data.gov.au team is aware of the issues listed below. They are currently being investigated and will be resolved as soon as possible. We are sorry for any inconvenience these outages may cause.

  • Dataset/site statistics - Pages living under the address https://data.gov.au/data/stats/ or https://data.gov.au/site-usage/ are currently unavailable.
  • WFS requests - While using a third party program and consuming a WFS service request there are values being omitted from certain attributes, while they do exist in the dataset.
  • Spatial ingester - Datasets with WFS | WMS | GeoJSON files failing to load the layers on the map. The system upgrade completed on the 14/08/2023 included an update to this issue. This is being monitored closely.

The Office of the National Data Commissioner (ONDC) has developed an Australian Government Data Catalogue. The Catalogue is hosted on Dataplace, a central point to find and request Australian Government data. The Catalogue will increase the transparency of government held data holdings, reduce duplication, and enable greater re-use and sharing of data.

The Catalogue draws on the data inventories of Australian Government agencies, including open and restricted data. Once users have discovered the data they wish to access, they will be directed to openly available data assets or to make a request to the custodian.

Data.gov.au forms a part of this inventory and so becomes a source for users of the Catalogue. Users are reminded that the role of Data.gov.au does not change with the release of the Australian Government Data Catalogue. Searching the Catalogue will link users to Data.gov.au if this is the source of the data being searched for. Users are also asked to review their datasets in Data.gov.au to ensure that it is accurate and current.

14/08/2023

This included many improvements to our back-end systems, bringing our infrastructure to the latest version to maintain the stability and security of our systems and address existing issues;

  • API tokens update - Authenticated users will be required to regenerate and update their API token within any calls made to Data.gov.au. For more information visit Data.gov.au User Guide - Automated publishing.
  • CSV upload column header fix - Resolved validation error occurring when a CSV upload is being updated and has a column header of '_id'.

30/06/2022

This included minor improvements to our back-end systems. In addition, specific functionality was changed to increase stability and security;

  • API support for Excel spreadsheets has been removed - Excel spreadsheets can no longer be added to the datastore for access via the API. Previously uploaded spreadsheets will remain accessible. Future updates to these spreadsheets will not be reflected in the API. Data custodians are recommended to upload their data in CSV format to ensure full API accessibility.
  • Ability to upload external resources to datastore has been removed - Resources not hosted within the Data.gov.au infrastructure will no longer be added to the datastore and be accessible via API. Data custodians are recommended to update existing external resources by uploading the data directly to Data.gov.au to ensure continued API accessibility.

13/01/2022

This included many improvements to our back-end systems, increasing reliability, security and performance. In addition, previous issues affecting users were resolved:

  • Obsolete API requests - Please review any request URLs and confirm they align with CKAN 2.9 API Documentation
  • ZIP files supplied by link - Data custodians utlising the ZIP extraction service on ZIP files supplied by a link will not extract. New method is to manually upload the ZIP file to Data.gov.au or via our API service.
  • 50X errors - Data custodians updating a dataset received an error page and could not complete the operation.
  • Temporal coverage error - Data custodians attempting to save metadata for a dataset would sometimes result in an unsuccessful save due to a missing value for a mandatory field. This field is no longer mandatory.
  • ZIP extraction failing - Data custodians leveraging the automatic upload service for datasets would result in files within a .zip not being extracted. We ask for publishers to review their process and ensure file type is set to "ZIP" and "Extract Resources from ZIP Files" is checked.
  • API requests - Some datasets were returning old data when consuming the API service. We ask for custodians to review their upload process and ensure the correct settings are enabled to allow Data.gov.au to serve the most up to date data through this service.

If you are currently experiencing any interruptions not listed under Known issues, please contact us at support@data.gov.au.