Get the Data — API
Planning application data is available programmatically. Details of the API are listed below.
Non–commercial, low–volume use of this service is free. Read more.
All the API calls listed below return planning application sorted by the date they were scraped from the planning authority website with the most recent listed first.
The API can return different formats including JSON, GeoJSON and GeoRSS. The examples below return JSON. To get GeoJSON instead simply replace ".json" in the URL with ".geojson". For GeoRSS replace ".json" with ".rss".
To use the API you will need an API key which you get automatically when you register for an account or sign in to your existing account. (Note that this is different than having signed up for an email alert). Once you've done that, return to this page and the API examples below will contain your API key.
API documentation
Single Location by longitude/latitude
Return applications near a given longitude/latitude. The area included is a circle with a radius of the given size (in metres) with the longitude/latitude at its center. Suggested sizes are 400, 800 or 4000 metres.
https://api.planningalerts.org.au/applications.json?key=[key]&lat=[latitude]&lng=[longitude]&radius=[distance_in_metres]
Area by longitude/latitude
Return applications within a rectangle defined by longitude/latitude.
https://api.planningalerts.org.au/applications.json?bottom_left_lat=[latitude]&bottom_left_lng=[longitude]&key=[key]&top_right_lat=[latitude]&top_right_lng=[longitude]
Planning authority
Return applications for a specific planning authority (e.g. a local council) by authority short name. To discover the authority short name to use here, find the planning authority on the list of authorities and follow the link. The url has the authority short name in it.
https://api.planningalerts.org.au/authorities/[name]/applications.json?key=[key]
Postcode
Return applications for a specific postcode area
https://api.planningalerts.org.au/applications.json?key=[key]&postcode=[postcode]
Suburb
Return applications in a suburb. Including “state” and “postcode” in the search is optional.
https://api.planningalerts.org.au/applications.json?key=[key]&postcode=[postcode]&state=[state]&suburb=[suburb]
Extra query parameters
There are several parameters that can be applied to each of the above queries for extra usefulness.
page
API calls return a maximum of 100 results. To retrieve more results simply do another request with page set to 2, 3, etc… Not setting the page parameter is the same as requesting page 1.
https://api.planningalerts.org.au/applications.json?page=2&postcode=2780
count
API calls by default return a maximum of 100 results. To return less than that per page simply set the count parameter to the maximum number you want to return.
https://api.planningalerts.org.au/applications.json?count=10&postcode=2780
Warning about client side API queries
Client-side API queries are supported using CORS. You might do this, for example, in a Javascript application that runs in the browser making requests directly to the PlanningAlerts API. This is fine for testing. However, this should not be used in production as you would be effectively making your API key public, which is a very bad. It is your responsibility to keep the API key safe and secure.
Instead we recommend either loading the data ahead of time server-side and passing the data to your client or alternatively proxying the client-side requests through your own server where you add the API key.
Usage
Low volume, non–commercial use of the API service is free. We ask that personal and non–profit use of this service attribute the OpenAustralia Foundation on your website or application.
Standard agreements for commercial use are at oaf.org.au/standard-agreements/planningalerts-commercial. Please contact us for commercial use. Commercial users may include Real Estate Agencies, Architects, Planners or Builders.
Also, please get in touch if you intend to use the service on a large scale. In order to maintain quality of service for our API users, this service is rate limited by default to approximately 1000 requests per day.
We offer a range of paid options, from rate–limited to unlimited use of this service.