About this model
A digital twin of Apollo Bay, compiled claim by claim
Living Town is an Otway Data Workshop research project: a model of a real town that anyone can open, question and correct. Apollo Bay is the pilot. This is the first public prototype: the method is working and the commercial centre is modelled in detail, but much of the town still rests on inferred values.
How it's made
- Nothing is hand-edited. Each change to the model is a script plus a record of claims and evidence, and the whole model is rebuilt from those, step by step, from the source data.
- Every claim carries its source and confidence. Click a building, tree, road or coastline point to see them. Measured things render solid; inferred things render pale.
- Nothing is deleted. When better evidence replaces a building or tree, the old record is retired with the reason, never reused.
- Imagery is for orientation only. Google, Bing and Nearmap imagery is never traced, stored or cited. Shapes come from open footprints, titles, surveys, contributor drawings and photos.
What's in this release
What's not, yet
- Water mains are in the research model but withheld here: Barwon Water's licence doesn't allow republishing without permission.
- Museum photographs and oral histories (Victorian Collections) are withheld: most are all rights reserved.
- Homes are kept simple on purpose. Residential detail stays at footprint and typical height.
- Heights are mostly inferred outside the town centre. Measured heights are welcome.
Help improve it
Spot an error, know a building's history, or hold data or photos that could help? . Every contribution is checked before it reaches the model, and recorded with its source.
Sources and licences
Building footprints, roads and land use include data © OpenStreetMap contributors and Microsoft Global ML Building Footprints, available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL 1.0); the model data this page downloads is a derived database offered under the same licence. Other layers keep the licences listed above. The model is a research prototype, not a survey: don't rely on it for property boundaries, planning or safety decisions.
Privacy and your submissions
When you use Have your say, Otway Data Workshop receives what you type, any files or links you send, the view you were looking at, and your name and email if you give them. We use them only to review and improve this model, and to reply if you ask. Contributions that make it into the model are credited by name only if you agree. Submissions reach us by email (sent through Resend) and are kept in our inbox; we don't sell or share them. Ask us to see, correct or delete what you sent at any time through the same form.
Country
Apollo Bay sits on the Country of the Eastern Maar peoples. We acknowledge them as Traditional Owners and pay our respects to Elders past and present. This model leaves out cultural knowledge unless its custodians choose to share it.
