API reference

Incidents

Live and historical emergency incidents from every state and territory, in one GeoJSON schema. Base URL https://dataquoll.io/api/v1.

GET/incidents

List all current incidents

Returns a GeoJSON FeatureCollection of all current emergency incidents, with support for filtering, pagination, and bounding box queries.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`state`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated state codes (e.g. nsw,vic,qld)
`eventType`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated event types (bushfire, burn_off, fire_ban, structure_fire, vehicle_fire, grass_fire, other_fire, hazmat, rescue, flood, storm, tree_down, cyclone, earthquake, extreme_heat, vehicle_accident, medical, alarm, other). For every kind of fire, use category=fire.
`category`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated event categories. Groups related event types (e.g. fire includes bushfire, structure_fire, grass_fire, vehicle_fire, other_fire (a fire of another or unstated kind) and fire_ban). burn_off is its own category (planned). See /api/v1/schema for the full mapping.
`featureType`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated feature types. Defaults to 'incident' (point incidents only), so boundary polygons never appear unless requested. Request them explicitly: incident_area, warning_area, fire_ban_area, road_disruption. See /api/v1/schema.
`severity`	query	No	`string`	CAP-AU severity levels (Extreme, Severe, Moderate, Minor, Unknown)
`urgency`	query	No	`string`	CAP-AU urgency levels (Immediate, Expected, Future, Past, Unknown)
`certainty`	query	No	`string`	CAP-AU certainty levels (Observed, Likely, Possible, Unlikely, Unknown)
`warningLevel`	query	No	`string`	Australian Warning System levels
`status`	query	No	`string`	Incident status filter
`agency`	query	No	`string`	Source agency filter
`official`	query	No	`boolean`	Filter by source provenance. `true` excludes sources the feed registry marks unofficial (today the four South Australian community-decoded pager feeds); `false` returns only those sources. Omit it to return everything, which is the default and unchanged behaviour. Read the semantics before relying on it: `official` defaults to true in our feed configuration and is declared explicitly on only the unofficial sources, so `official=true` means "not marked unofficial", not "verified government source". An official feed can still carry individual ambulance dispatches. Use `/attribution` to see the flag per source.
`bbox`	query	No	`string`	Bounding box: minLon,minLat,maxLon,maxLat. Records at precision 'state' (not placed) are never inside a box, so a bbox query leaves them out.
`limit`	query	No	`integer`	Results per page (default 100, max 500)
`cursor`	query	No	`string`	Opaque pagination cursor, taken from meta.next_cursor of the previous response. Absent next_cursor means there are no further pages.
`after`	query	No	`string`	Alias for cursor. This is the parameter name emitted in links.next, and is accepted for backward compatibility. If both are supplied, after wins.
`format`	query	No	`string`	Response format. CSV includes columns: id, state, agency, feed_id, title, event_type, status, warning_level, severity, urgency, certainty, lng, lat, address, suburb, lga, location_state, reported_at, updated_at, fetched_at, is_retracted, retracted_at, retraction_reason. cap-atom returns a standards-validated CAP Atom feed (each entry inlines a CAP-AU alert in <content>; incidents retracted in the last 7 days appear as Cancel messages). cap-au is the deprecated legacy <alerts> wrapper, kept for backward compatibility; new consumers should use cap-atom. CSV, cap-atom and cap-au require the Developer plan or above; requesting one on a lower plan returns 403.
`include_retracted`	query	No	`boolean`	Include retracted incidents (default false). Retracted incidents are marked when upstream feeds stop publishing them.
`include_boundary`	query	No	`boolean`	Set true to add properties.boundary: the area (Polygon or MultiPolygon) the agency published for each incident, or null when it published none. Off by default because polygons make list responses much larger. /incidents/{id} always includes it.

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	A GeoJSON FeatureCollection of incidents
`400`	A malformed parameter (a filter, limit or cursor)
`403`	A paid format (csv, cap-au, cap-atom) below the Developer plan, or a key restricted to other origins or endpoints
`429`	Rate limit exceeded

Request

curl "https://dataquoll.io/api/v1/incidents?state=nsw%2Cvic&eventType=bushfire%2Cflood" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Response

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "id": "nsw-rfs-1234567",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [
          150.604,
          -33.883
        ]
      },
      "properties": {
        "source": {
          "state": "nsw",
          "agency": "RFS",
          "feedId": "1234567"
        },
        "title": "Bush Fire - Warragamba",
        "eventType": "bushfire",
        "status": "active",
        "warningLevel": "watch_and_act",
        "severity": "Severe",
        "urgency": "Expected",
        "certainty": "Observed",
        "location": {
          "address": "Warragamba Dam Rd, Warragamba NSW",
          "suburb": "Warragamba",
          "state": "NSW",
          "latitude": -33.883,
          "longitude": 150.604
        },
        "details": {
          "description": "Bush fire burning in a south-easterly direction"
        },
        "timestamps": {
          "reported": "2026-04-07T14:30:00+10:00",
          "updated": "2026-04-07T16:45:00+10:00",
          "fetched": "2026-04-07T16:46:12+10:00"
        },
        "retraction": {
          "retracted": true,
          "retractedAt": "2026-04-07T18:00:00+10:00",
          "reason": "upstream_removed"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "total_count": 245,
    "has_more": true,
    "next_cursor": "cursor_xyz789",
    "generatedAt": "2026-04-07T16:46:12+10:00"
  },
  "links": {
    "self": "/v1/incidents?limit=100",
    "next": "/v1/incidents?limit=100&after=cursor_xyz789"
  },
  "attribution": "https://dataquoll.io/api/v1/attribution"
}

GET/incidents/{id}

Get a single incident

Returns a single incident as a GeoJSON Feature.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`id`	path	Yes	`string`	Incident ID (e.g. nsw-rfs-1234567)
`format`	query	No	`string`	Response format. Default geojson returns a GeoJSON Feature. cap-au returns the incident as a single standards-valid CAP-AU <alert> document (Content-Type application/cap+xml), validated against the OASIS CAP 1.2 schema and the CAP-AU Profile v3.0. CSV, cap-atom and cap-au require the Developer plan or above; requesting one on a lower plan returns 403.

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	A GeoJSON Feature, or a CAP-AU alert document when format=cap-au
`404`	Incident not found

Request

curl "https://dataquoll.io/api/v1/incidents/{id}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/incidents/nearby

Find incidents near a location

Returns incidents within a radius (km) of a given lat/lng coordinate, sorted by distance. Records at precision 'state' are left out: their point only stands for somewhere in the state.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`lat`	query	Yes	`number`	Latitude
`lng`	query	Yes	`number`	Longitude
`radius`	query	Yes	`number`	Radius in kilometres (max 500)
`limit`	query	No	`integer`
`state`	query	No	`string`
`eventType`	query	No	`string`
`severity`	query	No	`string`
`eventCategory`	query	No	`string`
`urgency`	query	No	`string`
`certainty`	query	No	`string`
`warningLevel`	query	No	`string`
`agency`	query	No	`string`
`official`	query	No	`boolean`	Filter by source provenance. `true` excludes sources the feed registry marks unofficial (today the four South Australian community-decoded pager feeds); `false` returns only those sources. Omit it to return everything, which is the default and unchanged behaviour. Read the semantics before relying on it: `official` defaults to true in our feed configuration and is declared explicitly on only the unofficial sources, so `official=true` means "not marked unofficial", not "verified government source". An official feed can still carry individual ambulance dispatches. Use `/attribution` to see the flag per source.
`status`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated incident statuses (active, contained, controlled, safe, completed). Defaults to all.
`include_retracted`	query	No	`boolean`	Set true to include retracted incidents. Default false; retracted incidents are hidden, matching /incidents.
`include_boundary`	query	No	`boolean`	Set true to add properties.boundary: the area (Polygon or MultiPolygon) the agency published for each incident, or null when it published none. Off by default because polygons make list responses much larger. /incidents/{id} always includes it.

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Nearby incidents as GeoJSON FeatureCollection
`400`	Missing or invalid parameters

Request

curl "https://dataquoll.io/api/v1/incidents/nearby?lat=-33.87&lng=151.21" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/incidents/snapshot

Audit trail snapshot

Returns the incidents that were active at a specific point in time, each once. Recent datetimes are reconstructed from live and lifecycle data: an incident counts from when we first saw it until its source withdrew it, so one withdrawn by then is left out. Each carries the latest state we recorded for it, which, for an incident its source updated in place, can be later than the datetime asked (timestamps.updated says when). Datetimes before 2026-04-08 are reconstructed from the historical archive (4.5M records) and are gated by the same tier lookback as /incidents/history (free has no archive access; Starter 1 year, Developer and Business 5 years, Pro, Organisation and Enterprise unlimited). Archive (pre-2026-04-08) snapshots require a state filter, and meta.source indicates whether the result came from "live" or "archive". meta.truncated is true when more incidents were active than came back: the answer stopped at limit, or at about 4 MB (archive flood extents come back whole; meta.size_limited is then true too). Narrow by state or event_type. An archive record its source dated only to a period (properties.archive.datePrecision, datePeriodEnd) counts as active from the period's first day until the end its source states, or, without one, until the period's last day, because the source does not say on which of those days it burned or flooded. One with a stated day and no stated end counts on that day only.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`datetime`	query	Yes	`string`	ISO 8601 datetime to query (cannot be in the future)
`state`	query	No	`string`	Filter by state code. Required for archive (pre-2026-04-08) snapshots.
`event_type`	query	No	`string`	Filter by event type
`limit`	query	No	`integer`	Max results (default 500). An integer from 1 to 500; anything else is a 400.
`include_boundary`	query	No	`boolean`	Set true to add properties.boundary: the area (Polygon or MultiPolygon) the agency published for each incident, or null when it published none. Off by default because polygons make list responses much larger. /incidents/{id} always includes it.

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Incidents active at the requested datetime
`400`	Missing or invalid datetime, a limit that is not an integer from 1 to 500, an archive (pre-2026-04-08) snapshot requested without the required state filter, or a query that timed out (narrow it, or try again in a moment)
`403`	Archive access requires a paid plan, or the datetime predates your tier's lookback window
`429`	Rate limit exceeded

Request

curl "https://dataquoll.io/api/v1/incidents/snapshot?datetime=2026-04-20T14%3A30%3A00%2B09%3A30&state=sa" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/incidents/history

Historical incident data (paid tier)

Returns historical emergency incidents from two sources, merged and ordered newest first: the imported archive (1840 to 1 May 2026, 4.5M records) and the records our own pollers have written since April 2026, which carry `boundary` where an agency published an area. `meta.sources` names which answered. Free tier is blocked. Starter is limited to 1 year of lookback, Developer and Business to 5 years, Pro, Organisation and Enterprise unlimited. A window too large to answer within the database budget returns 400 asking you to narrow it. Engine-era records also carry `featureType` (incidents by default; pass `featureType` to ask for warning_area or incident_area markers) and a `retraction` object only when an agency withdrew the record rather than letting it end: leaving the agency's live feed is the normal end of an incident and is not reported as a retraction here. Records are ordered by `reported_at` newest first; a record with no `reported_at` is not returned here (hazard history counts it as undated). An archive record whose source stated only a period carries `date_precision` (`month`, `season`, `financial_year`, `year` or `period`) and `date_period_end`: its `event_start_date` is then the period's first day, not a stated day, and the same keys sit in its `details`, with `details.date_as_published` holding the source's own value wherever we replaced a placeholder start, and `details.end_as_published` a replaced end. A period-dated archive record's `reported_at` is its period's first day at the start of the day, UTC, so `after` and `before` select it by that day, not by overlap. PAGE WITH `cursor`: pass `meta.next_cursor` from one response as `cursor` on the next, or follow `links.next`. `before` and `after` bound the WINDOW and are not a paging mechanism: thousands of blocks of records share an identical `reported_at` (the largest holds more than 600,000 records), and advancing `before` past a page would skip the rest of that block. Records sharing an instant have no natural order; the order given is stable across pages, which is what the cursor relies on. A PAGE ALSO ENDS AT ABOUT 4 MB: archive polygons are returned whole (a single mapped flood extent can run to megabytes), so a page stops adding records once its size passes the cap, always serving at least one record. `meta.size_limited` is then true and `meta.has_more` true; keep following the cursor.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`state`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated state codes
`eventType`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated event types
`official`	query	No	`boolean`	Filter by source provenance. `true` excludes sources the feed registry marks unofficial (today the four South Australian community-decoded pager feeds); `false` returns only those sources. Omit it to return everything, which is the default and unchanged behaviour. Read the semantics before relying on it: `official` defaults to true in our feed configuration and is declared explicitly on only the unofficial sources, so `official=true` means "not marked unofficial", not "verified government source". An official feed can still carry individual ambulance dispatches. Use `/attribution` to see the flag per source.
`after`	query	No	`string`	Start of date range (ISO 8601, inclusive). Tier-limited.
`before`	query	No	`string`	End of date range (ISO 8601, exclusive). Defaults to now.
`cursor`	query	No	`string`	Opaque pagination cursor. Pass `meta.next_cursor` from the previous response, or follow `links.next`. Use this rather than advancing `before`, which cannot page through records sharing one `reported_at`.
`limit`	query	No	`integer`	Max results per page (1-500, default 100)

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Historical incidents matching filters
`400`	Invalid before or after, filters, limit or cursor, or a window too large to answer within the database budget (narrow it)
`403`	Free tier blocked or depth limit exceeded
`429`	Rate limit exceeded

Request

curl "https://dataquoll.io/api/v1/incidents/history?state=wa%2Csa&eventType=bushfire%2Cflood" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"