Moreton Bay Region is the latest local government to join the OASC Australia network. This latest addition reinforces the already established collaboration among cities, regions, and other key stakeholders in South East Queensland, Australia.
Moreton Bay Region joins the cities of Brisbane and Gold Coast (who both joined OASC in 2015) as well as Ipswich and Logan, who joined with the sixth wave during IoT Week 2017 in Geneva.
Moreton Bay’s Regional Innovation spokesperson Councillor Darren Grimwade said joining OASC Australia would allow the region to collaborate with other leading cities and communities throughout the world to develop smart technologies and solutions for its 430,000 residents, 25,000-plus businesses and 2.9 million annual visitors.
“We want to be a region that doesn’t just adopt the latest tech, but also plays an important role in developing and embracing it,” Cr Grimwade said.
“Working with OASC cities and communities will help council to develop a thriving 460ha hub of innovation: The Mill at Moreton Bay, which will see smart businesses, infrastructure and homes at its core together with a new major university campus offering world-class research and education opportunities.
“As a council we’re already working towards innovative solutions like smart parking and lighting, and OASC will help transform our region into a community that is on the front foot when it comes to smart technology.”
Since joining OASC, the Australian cities collaborate with the Open Data Institute Australia Network, the Urban Informatics Research Lab at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and the regional business development agency Springfield City Group.
Moreton Bay – An innovative region
Over the last three years, Moreton Bay has been pursuing various smart city initiatives founded upon four strategic pillars; doing more with less, delivering more digital services, open data and the provision of data coverage across the region.
Projects include a smart parking trial and smart lighting network starting this year, the establishment of a new internal core system which will integrate and digitise all council business processes across the organisation the establishment of a smart city data platform along with the automation of customer services using machine learning.
Moreton Bay is also establishing its first full service university campus called “The Mill” which will also act as a catalyst for further smart city initiatives, open data opportunities through collaboration with the University of Sunshine Coast and local businesses.
Davor Meersman, General Manager of OASC, said: “The Open & Agile Smart Cities network now counts 117 cities from three continents. We are happy to see OASC Australia expanding and increasing collaboration. Ever since the Australian node was established in 2015 it has been actively working on a joint, open and interoperable approach towards the smart city.”
OASC Australia meet-up
The other current members being Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich and Logan as well as the partners from QUT and ODI welcome and look forward to collaborating with Moreton Bay as well as any other Australian local government interested in joining.
OASC Australia has recently held a joint workshop at QUT, where they have discussed smart Parking and smart Lighting data.
If you are an Australian city interested in joining the vibrant Australian OASC network, then reach out to Derek Meggitt or send an email to info@oascities.org.
Note to the editors:
The official names of the members of OASC have been shortened to enhance readability. The full, legal name of the Australian OASC members are as follows: Brisbane City Council, Goldcoast City Council, Ipswich City Council, Logan City Council, and Moreton Bay Regional Council.