Spotter › Queensland

Fire alerts for Queensland

Live fire incidents near you across South East Queensland, the Darling Downs, Central and North Queensland, and your family’s position against them. Fire only — read what is and is not covered before you rely on it.

Read this before you rely on Spotter in Queensland

Queensland's biggest emergencies are cyclone and flood, and Spotter does not carry either. In Queensland it imports bushfire alerts only. Not cyclones, not flooding, not storm warnings.

That is a real limitation and we would rather you knew it now than discovered it in February. For cyclone and flood, the Bureau of Meteorology and your state’s own emergency app are the source of record, and nothing here replaces them.

What Spotter is useful for in Queensland is bushfire near your people, and the family side of things — the map, saved places, arrival notices and a one-tap check-in — which work everywhere in Australia.

Queensland and fire

Queensland's populated south east runs from the Gold Coast hinterland and the Scenic Rim, through Brisbane, Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley, up to the Sunshine Coast hinterland and Noosa. Rainforest, eucalypt ranges and suburbs sit close together there in a way that surprises people who think of Queensland as too wet to burn.

What tends to happen here

It burns. In September 2019 fire reached Binna Burra in the Lamington ranges and destroyed the historic lodge, and on the Sunshine Coast residents of Peregian Beach, Peregian Breeze and the southern end of Lake Weyba were ordered to leave their homes. Those fires ran through country that had rarely carried fire of that kind before, and the season continued into December.

Spotter shows what is live near you across South East Queensland, the Darling Downs, Central and North Queensland — including Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Toowoomba, Gold Coast, Beaudesert, Canungra, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Gympie, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns — ordered by how close it is rather than by when it was filed. When nothing is live nearby it says “Nothing reported near you”, never that you are safe.

Getting around

South East Queensland is spread across a very large area, with people routinely living, working and schooling in different cities within it. Saved places and arrival notices are built for exactly that pattern, and they work anywhere in Australia regardless of which official feeds Spotter carries.

The family side works everywhere

Which official feeds Spotter carries varies by state. The family features do not: the map, saved places, arrival notices for Home, School and Work, the one-tap check-in and the “Are you OK?” message work anywhere in Australia. Every connection needs mutual approval, you can pause sharing or switch to an approximate suburb-level position at any time, and removing someone takes effect immediately without telling them.