data.gov.au API

Free Australian government open data API with no key: search 141,000+ datasets across federal, state and local agencies through the standard CKAN interface. Tested example included.

No API key requiredCORS enabledHTTPSFree tier

Endpoint tested and returned HTTP 200 on 2026-08-21

What is the data.gov.au API?

data.gov.au is Australia's national open data portal, exposing a free, key-free CKAN API. It provides search and metadata access to more than 141,000 datasets published by federal, state, territory and local government agencies, with licence, resource and organisation details for each.

Australia's portal aggregates publishers at every level of government, which is why the dataset count is so high relative to the country's size — federal departments, all eight states and territories, and hundreds of local councils all publish through it. Topics span geospatial and native title data, health, transport, environment and budget figures.

It runs CKAN, the same open-source platform behind Ireland's, Finland's and many other national portals, so one client works across all of them: `package_search` for querying, `package_show` for a single dataset, `organization_list` for publishers. One thing to watch here specifically — the API is mounted at `/data/api/3/...`, not at `/api/3/...` as most CKAN installs are. That extra path segment is a common source of 404s.

Quick facts

Base URL: https://data.gov.au/data/api/3/action
Authentication: No API key for read operations. Only dataset creation and editing, which requires a publisher account, needs a token.
Rate limit: No published limit. Keep page sizes reasonable; some records carry very large geospatial metadata.
Pricing: Free. Most datasets are Creative Commons licensed, but check `license_id` per dataset.
CORS: Enabled — callable directly from browser JavaScript
Official docs: Read the docs

How to use the data.gov.au API

Every request below was executed against the live API on 2026-08-21, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.

1. Search Australian government datasets

GET https://data.gov.au/data/api/3/action/package_search?rows=1

curl

curl 'https://data.gov.au/data/api/3/action/package_search?rows=1'

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://data.gov.au/data/api/3/action/package_search?rows=1");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python (requests)

import requests

res = requests.get("https://data.gov.au/data/api/3/action/package_search?rows=1", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

Response — HTTP 200 (truncated)

{
  "help": "https://data.gov.au/data/api/3/action/help_show?name=package_search",
  "success": true,
  "result": {
    "count": 141027,
    "facets": {},
    "results": [
      {
        "archived": false,
        "author": "National Native Title Tribunal",
        "author_email": null,
        "contact_point": "geoservices@nntt.gov.au",
        "creator_user_id": "3f3dbba9-ede7-4973-8bb4-221d843eb296",
        "duplicate_score": 1,
        "geospatial_topic": [],
        "id": "00602301-ad90-4657-abd9-8025d9bf485a",
        "isopen": false,
        "language": "English",
        "license_id": "cc-by-4.0",
        "license_title": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International",
        "license_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0",
        "maintainer": "nntt",
        "maintainer_email": null,
        "metadata_created": "2013-09-24T04:02:36.959014",
        "metadata_modified": "2026-08-19T23:16:03.986676",
        "name": "native-title-determination-applications-register",
        "notes": "The Register of Native Title Claims is kept by the Native Title Registrar pursuant to s 185 of the NTA to hold information on claimant applications that have satisfied the registration requirements set out in ss 190B and 190C of the NTA.  \r\n\r\nNative title claimants whose applications have been accepted for registration are afforded a number of procedural rights in relation to future acts that affect native title including the right to negotiate, the right to be notified, the right to comment, the right to request consultation, or the right to object as prescribed

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`q`	query	Optional	Free-text Solr query across dataset titles, descriptions and tags. Supports field syntax such as `title:census`. `census`
`rows`	query	Optional	How many datasets to return. Defaults to 20. `1`
`start`	query	Optional	Pagination offset, used with `rows`. `0`
`fq`	query	Optional	Filter query for faceted narrowing, for example by organisation or licence. `organization:bureau-of-meteorology`
`sort`	query	Optional	Sort order, such as `metadata_modified desc` for the most recently updated. `metadata_modified desc`

Response fields

successboolean: Whether the CKAN action succeeded. Check it — CKAN can return HTTP 200 with `success: false`.
result.countinteger: Total datasets matching the query, independent of how many this page returned.
result.resultsarray: The matching dataset records.
results[].title / notesstring: Dataset title and description.
results[].organizationobject: Publishing agency, with its own title and description.
results[].license_id / license_titlestring: Licence for the dataset. Varies by publisher, so never assume open reuse without checking.
results[].resourcesarray: The actual downloadable files or API endpoints, each with a `format` (CSV, GeoJSON, XLSX, WMS) and a direct `url`.
results[].geospatial_topicarray: Australia-specific extension classifying geospatial datasets by theme.

What you can build with the data.gov.au API

Discover Australian government datasets on a topic programmatically
Build a metadata catalogue that harvests multiple national CKAN portals
Monitor an agency for newly published or updated datasets
Locate direct download URLs for CSV or GeoJSON resources

Common errors and how to fix them

404

The API path is wrong.

Fix: data.gov.au mounts CKAN under `/data/api/3/action/...`. Omitting the leading `data` segment is the usual cause.

HTTP 200 with success false

The action ran but rejected your parameters.

Fix: Read `error.message` in the body — CKAN reports validation failures this way rather than with a status code.

Slow or timing out

Large `rows` values combined with heavy geospatial metadata.

Fix: Keep `rows` modest and page through with `start`.

data.gov.au API — frequently asked questions

Is the data.gov.au API free?

Yes, all read operations are free with no API key. Only creating or editing datasets, which requires a publisher account, needs a token.

How many datasets does data.gov.au have?

Over 141,000 at the time of testing, because the portal aggregates federal departments, all states and territories, and hundreds of local councils rather than just national agencies.

What is CKAN?

The open-source data portal platform behind data.gov.au and many other national portals, including Ireland's and Finland's. Because they share the API, one client can query all of them — only the base URL changes.

Can I use Australian government data commercially?

Usually, since most datasets are Creative Commons Attribution licensed, but it varies by publisher. Check `license_id` and `license_title` on each dataset rather than assuming.

Tools that pair with this API

CSV to JSON Converter

Convert CSV to a JSON array of objects online. Header-row detection, comma/semicolon/tab delimiters and pretty-printed output — 100% in your browser.

JSON to CSV Converter

Convert a JSON array of objects to CSV online. Automatic column headers from the union of all keys, delimiter choice and proper quoting — all in-browser.

CSV Viewer & Table

View CSV as a clean HTML table online. Live search filter, row and column counts, delimiter and header options — all processed locally in your browser.

data.gov.au is an independent third-party service and is not affiliated with ByteTools or ByteVancer. Details on this page were verified on 2026-08-21; always check the official documentation before relying on this API in production, as terms and limits can change.