Last month, the ABC featured our flood tracking dashboard in a national story about regional innovation. Seeing Clermont on the front page for technology, not just coal, cattle, or weather extremes, was a proud moment for our whole team.
You can read the ABC article here https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-23/clermont-flood-tracking-website/106243686
Remote isn’t a limitation. It’s perspective.
We live off-grid. We work across patchy internet connections. We build systems that have to function in heat, dust, storms, and power interruptions. That reality shapes how we think about technology.
When heavy rain hits Clermont, it isn’t abstract. It affects road access, supply chains, school pickups, livestock movements, and whether someone makes the call to drive across a crossing or wait.
The Gauge flood dashboard grew from that lived experience. It wasn’t built as a flashy demo. It was built as a practical tool that answers a very simple question:
What’s happening right now?
That question sounds basic. Technically, it isn’t.
Behind the scenes, we are ingesting verified public sensor feeds, aligning them with rainfall data, storing them reliably, and presenting them in a format that works on a mobile phone with inconsistent reception. The interface is clean on purpose. When people are tired, worried, or making quick decisions, complexity does not help.
Living remote teaches you something valuable about product design. Clarity beats cleverness every time.
Data feels different when it affects you
In metro tech circles, data gets talked about in big, impressive language. Pipelines. Models. Predictive layers.
In regional Queensland, a few centimetres on a gauge can mean the difference between getting home or turning around. Timing matters. Trends matter. Confidence in the data matters.
As we monitored the dashboard during rain events, we noticed something else. Some sensors would occasionally stop reporting for extended periods. Not because anyone failed, but because outdoor hardware in regional conditions will always face constraints.
That discovery became one of the most powerful insights of the project.
A flat line can look reassuring. Silence can be mistaken for stability.
So instead of smoothing over gaps, the dashboard makes them visible. Time since last update is shown. Fresh data looks different from older readings. The system does not guess. It does not fill in blanks.
That choice changes how people interpret what they are seeing. It shifts the focus from just “what is the water doing?” to “how healthy is the sensing system underneath?”
That is where digital capability really shows.
Built in Clermont. Relevant everywhere.
Since the ABC article went live, we have had conversations with planners, infrastructure teams, and emergency response professionals well beyond our postcode. The interest is not just in the dashboard itself. It is in what it reveals.
Clear, honest data invites better questions.
It highlights where infrastructure is strong. It reveals where reliability could improve. It creates a shared reference point between community members and decision-makers.
This is the type of work Clermont Digital specialises in.
We operate at the intersection of systems and storytelling. We take scattered, technical information and turn it into something practical, usable, and grounded in real conditions. Whether that is flood monitoring, operational dashboards for businesses, or ERP systems like AERIS, the principle is the same. Build tools that support decisions, not decoration.
Working remotely does not mean we are behind. In many ways, it pushes us ahead. When your internet drops out occasionally and your power is solar-generated, you design for resilience by default. You test harder. You simplify ruthlessly. You think about what happens when something fails.
That mindset shaped Gauge.
Where this leads
The flood dashboard has opened the door to next steps we are actively exploring. One path is deploying a locally optimised sensor network designed for Central Queensland conditions, with a strong focus on reliability and visibility into sensor health. Another is a dedicated mobile app that delivers calm, practical flood and weather information directly into people’s hands.
The ABC article captured the moment the tool became visible nationally. For us, it represents something bigger. Proof that sophisticated, meaningful technology can be designed, built, and maintained from a remote town by people who understand the stakes.
You can explore the dashboard at:
https://gauge.clermont.digital
And if you are curious about what remote-first, resilience-driven technology looks like in practice, we are always up for that conversation.