API reference

River gauges

Water level readings and BoM flood classifications from state water monitoring networks. Base URL https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1.

GET/gauges

River gauge stations with live flood status

Returns river gauge stations with their latest water level, the Bureau of Meteorology flood classification thresholds for each gauge, and a derived floodClass (below_minor, minor, moderate, major, or unclassified) computed from the latest reading against the published thresholds. Water-level readings are in metres relative to each gauge's local datum (each gauge carries its own unit, since some report in AHD). readingStatus flags stale data (bom-kiwis sourced stations are a 1-2 day archive, stale horizon 72 hours; bcc-telemetry are event-driven council ALERT loggers, stale horizon 48 hours; telemetry sources 24 hours). Defaults to water-level gauges; pass variable=rainfall for observed rainfall gauges, which report incremental millimetres and carry no flood classification. Status reporting, not flood prediction.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`variable`	query	No	`string`	Measured variable. Defaults to water_level; rainfall returns observed rain gauges (millimetres, incremental, no flood class).
`state`	query	No	`string`	Lowercase state code (nsw, vic, qld, sa, wa, tas, nt, act)
`floodClass`	query	No	`string`	Filter to gauges at or above this class (>= semantics: minor matches moderate and major too). Water-level only; cannot combine with variable=rainfall.
`lga`	query	No	`string`	ABS LGA code (the same LGA_2022 vocabulary as the declarations API)
`source`	query	No	`string`	Polling source (hydstra-nsw, hydstra-vic, hydstra-qld, aquarius-sa, aquarius-tas, aquarius-nt, bom-kiwis, bcc-telemetry)
`bbox`	query	No	`string`	Bounding box minLng,minLat,maxLng,maxLat (within Australia)
`limit`	query	No	`integer`	Max results per page (1-500, default 100)
`cursor`	query	No	`string`	Pagination cursor from meta.nextCursor

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Gauge stations with latest readings and flood status
`401`	Missing or invalid API key

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/gauges?state=nsw&lga=17750" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/gauges/{id}

One gauge with a 6-hour recent window

Returns a single gauge station plus its trailing 6 hours of raw readings (enough to see the current trend). Deeper history is the tier-gated /gauges/{id}/readings endpoint.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`id`	path	Yes	`string`	Gauge id from /gauges (e.g. hydstra-nsw-410001)

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	The gauge and its recent readings
`404`	No active gauge with that id

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/gauges/{id}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/gauges/{id}/readings

Gauge reading history (paid tier)

Historical water level readings for one gauge. Free tier is blocked (the free surface is current readings on /gauges and the 6-hour window on /gauges/{id}). Starter tier limited to 1 year lookback, Developer and Business to 5 years, Pro and Enterprise unlimited. Retention ladder: raw 30 days, hourly rollups 90 days, daily forever — plus full-resolution raw inside flood-event windows kept forever. interval=auto picks the finest granularity available for the requested window.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`id`	path	Yes	`string`
`after`	query	No	`string`	Start of range (ISO 8601, inclusive). Tier-limited.
`before`	query	No	`string`	End of range (ISO 8601, exclusive). Defaults to now.
`interval`	query	No	`string`	raw, hourly, daily, or auto (default)
`above`	query	No	`string`	Only readings at/above this published flood classification for the gauge
`limit`	query	No	`integer`
`cursor`	query	No	`string`	Pagination cursor from meta.nextCursor (ISO timestamp keyset)

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Readings for the gauge, newest first
`403`	Free tier blocked or depth limit exceeded

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/gauges/{id}/readings" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/gauges/summary

Flood status counts by state or LGA

Counts of gauges at or above minor/moderate/major flood classification, grouped by state or LGA, plus the full list of at-or-above-minor stations (capped at 500). STALE GUARD: only readings within the staleness horizon enter class counts — a days-old reading above minor is counted as stale, never as a current flood signal.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`variable`	query	No	`string`	Measured variable. Defaults to water_level (rain gauges carry no flood class, so they are excluded from the counts by default).
`groupBy`	query	No	`string`	state (default) or lga (requires the state parameter)
`state`	query	No	`string`

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Flood status summary

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/gauges/summary?state=sa" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"