State looms large in GovHack event

Western Australia’s tech sector has proved its mettle against other states, with participants in national data event GovHack winning a suite of national and international prizes.

GovHack is an annual competition that allows data analysts access to ‘hack’ government data, giving teams 46 hours to use the data in a clever or creative way.

Past teams have created applications, artworks, digitisation projects or analysis of the government data provided, which this year included material from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Taxation Office and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), among other government agencies.

“The fact that Western Australia received nine national awards and honourable mentions, including two at the international level, is testament to the calibre of the State’s entrepreneurs and our progress with open data,” Acting Lands Minister Mia Davies said.

“Open data is also inspiring the next generation as was seen recently when Landgate held WA’s first junior hackathon, ‘HackED’, in August.”

Winning WA teams included Synergising Synergies for Sitizens, for best policy insights hack, #on country, which won the indigenous issues bounty, and Caffeinate Me for the statistics data bounty.   

Other WA winners included Hack to the Future, which received an honourable mention in the indigenous issues category, and Open Energy, which came second for best entrepreneurial hack.