Post-Black Summer, cutting-edge tech was developed in Canberra to give the NSW RFS an edge in managing frontline, mission-oriented situations. Photo: NSW RFS.
In 2019, as the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) led the world’s largest volunteer bushfire-fighting force to battle the apocalyptic Black Summer fires, its already substantial legal powers to purchase and deploy resources — human and material — were enhanced to meet the crisis.
Herculean logistical management was needed in the chaos of the greatest emergency ever declared in NSW history, where every decision could have significant human and financial implications.
As the smoke cleared, a call to action came: the NSW RFS needed a fully secure, technological solution to support its volunteer fighting force of 70,000 strong at a moment’s notice, empowering it to operate under uniquely Australian conditions.
An off-the-shelf system wouldn’t do.
“NSW RFS works with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, police and metropolitan fire services through the Australasian Incident Management System,” Agile Digital executive director David Elliot explains.
“It’s tailored to local conditions for managing fires, floods and other disasters here in Australia. So to strengthen their ability to deploy volunteer firefighters at short notice, they needed software built for that.”
Agile was put to the task, and what they designed changed the terrain.
Agile, an enterprise software systems builder that’s operated out of Canberra for nearly two decades, is known for creating critical high-value, highly specialised systems and infrastructure for unique and complex environments. Clients include Toyota and The Hong Kong Jockey Club.
For the NSW RFS, they built the Personnel Rostering and Assignment System (PRAS) to track every significant incident in NSW.
On the surface, it looks like a rostering tool for both staff and volunteers, but one required to verify exactly who each person is, recognise their responsibilities and limitations, and manage their access accordingly, eliminating manual processes like faxing forms and applying rules automatically.
This ensures people have access when they need it — and, importantly, not when they don’t, balancing the need for speed with the need for security.
“Emergency response systems are critical infrastructure, so they must be highly secure. If someone wanted to disrupt Australia, targeting emergency IT systems would be a predictable approach,” David says.
“At the same time, the system needed to be able to roster people in 30-minute blocks, grant them the access they need instantly, and remove it just as quickly. It’s essentially a high-cadence identity and access management system.
“This makes emergency response more secure and fluid. For example, if a financial controller needs to approve the purchase of a truck during a Section 44 (state-wide) emergency, the system recognises their authority and enables approval within minutes, which could take much longer when manual approval processes were required. That access must also be removed once their shift ends.”
Agile Digital’s David Elliot says for its own stability, Australia needs to be an active participant in how its critical systems are built and maintained. Photo: Agile Digital.
But PRAS’s most valuable benefit is perhaps fatigue management.
In a land where swathes of bushland encroach on metropolitan areas, fires are always serious business, but never more so than during peak periods, when it’s easy to lose track of how long individuals have been operating across multiple incidents.
PRAS flags fatigue risks so controllers can intervene.
“If a firefighter has been working a dangerous shift pattern, they must stand down for rest, because lives depend on it,” David says.
It also supports post-incident reviews by maintaining accurate records of who did what and when.
“The NSW RFS is a highly data-driven, learning organisation, using advanced technology and research to better understand fire behaviour and response strategies,” David says.
“High-quality data feeds into those reviews and helps improve future outcomes. That kind of data can inform procedural and policy improvements over time.”
PRAS embodies Agile’s focus — community-based software built for Australian conditions, with a strong emphasis on security and reliability.
This kind of software now underpins almost everything from infrastructure to daily operations, according to David, with sometimes dire consequences if they’re not secure 24/7.
He points to the CrowdStrike outage, a massive global tech failure in 2024 often described as the largest IT outage in history.
“That really highlighted how fragile global software supply chains can be. A small upstream error can cascade into widespread disruption,” he says.
“In Australia, we found ourselves with no agency to control that situation, and it highlighted a growing need for resilience and local capability in software and data systems.
“Relying entirely on external providers reduces control and responsiveness. As software becomes more central to how society functions, understanding and maintaining those systems locally becomes increasingly important.
“Australia needs to be an active participant — not a passive observer — in how its critical systems are built and maintained.
For more information, visit Agile Digital.
Original Article published by Dione David on Region Canberra.
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