General News
13 June, 2026
Council axes $315,000 app after 15 months
NORTHERN Grampians Shire Council will shut down its CommunityConnect app at the end of June, about 15 months after launching the platform through the Halls Gap Community Preparedness and Resilience Project as a central source of community information and emergency preparedness resources. The app was designed to provide residents with local information, event listings and emergency preparedness resources through a single digital platform. The project cost $315,000 and was funded through the Victorian Government’s Safer Together program and Emergency Recovery Victoria.
Council said the funding covered app development, hosting, community engagement and promotion.
Council said 12.5 per cent of the project budget — about $39,000 — was allocated to launching and promoting the application.
In announcing the closure, Mayor Karen Hyslop said the app had not reached the level of community use council had anticipated.
“Unfortunately, the community isn’t using it as much as we had anticipated,” she said.
“If our residents were using the app, we would continue to support it, but given that they are not, we will not be allocating ratepayer money towards its continuation.”
Council has not disclosed what level of use it had anticipated when CommunityConnect was launched, nor what benchmarks were used to assess whether the platform had been successful.
A council spokesperson said promotional efforts extended beyond social media and media releases and included download giveaways, attendance at community events, presentations at community forums and direct engagement with businesses, groups, event organisers and sporting clubs.
While council says promotion included community events, forums, giveaways and direct engagement activities, a review by The Stawell Times-News identified only limited publicly available digital promotion of CommunityConnect, with most identifiable online references appearing concentrated around the platform’s launch period.
Council declined to provide further details regarding its promotional activities, stating it would not provide additional information beyond what had already been supplied.
Residents are being encouraged to use the VicEmergency app, council’s website and council’s social media channels for information after CommunityConnect is decommissioned on June 30.
Read More: Stawell