Transparency

Data sources & APIs

OzWatch is thin glue over open data. Every camera you see is verifiable at its source — usually a node in OpenStreetMap, or a record in an Australian government open-data portal.

Source	Kind	Status	Notes
OpenStreetMap Overpass API	Read API	primary	Primary data source. Queries for man_made=surveillance nodes tagged surveillance:type=ALPR/ANPR within the AU bounding box.
OpenStreetMap tile server	Raster tiles	primary	Base map rendering via MapLibre GL JS. Consider switching to Protomaps, Stadia Maps, or self-hosted tiles at scale.
Nominatim (OSM geocoding)	Geocoding API	planned	Address & place search, biased to AU with countrycodes=au. Planned for the search bar on /map.
OpenStreetMap Editing API (OAuth 2)	Write API	planned	Would let contributors add new cameras back to OSM directly from OzWatch.
data.gov.au (CKAN)	Open data catalogue	reference	Federal open-data catalogue. Useful for discovering state-level camera datasets programmatically.
Transport for NSW — Open Data Hub	Government API	reference	Fixed speed, red-light, safety and traffic-camera locations across NSW.
DataVic / VicRoads	Government data	reference	Victorian fixed and mobile road-safety camera locations.
Queensland Government Open Data	Government data	reference	Speed, red-light and average-speed camera datasets for QLD.
ABS ASGS boundaries	Geospatial	reference	State, LGA and SA boundaries — used for filtering, stats, and regional roll-ups.

Example Overpass query

This is what the map runs on load. Paste it into overpass-turbo.eu to see the raw results.

[out:json][timeout:60];
(
  node["man_made"="surveillance"]
      ["surveillance:type"~"ALPR|ANPR",i]
      (-44.0,112.0,-10.0,154.0);
  node["man_made"="surveillance"]
      ["camera:type"~"ALPR|ANPR",i]
      (-44.0,112.0,-10.0,154.0);
);
out body;