Supporting Sunwater to Keep Queensland Communities Informed

Fixing the Route to Production Before Fixing the Site

The first job was not code. The bigger issue was the delivery process, with completed work not consistently reaching the live website. Fixing bugs faster would not have solved the underlying problem. 

So we mapped how anything was supposed to reach production, then built a route the client could see.

• Structured onboarding and full environment mapping in the first month, covering development workflows, access requirements and production approval processes.
• Secure development access established in coordination with Sunwater’s internal technical team.
• Every previously reported issue verified rather than assumed closed
• One tracked request process gave the communications team a clear point of contact, visibility over progress and a consistent monthly delivery cycle.

Auditing Before Touching Anything

With access secured, we measured the platform rather than patching symptoms.

• Extended backend audit of the WordPress platform, documented and reported 
• Full UX and UI audit across desktop and mobile, delivered as a formal report
• 22 findings converted into a prioritised remediation backlog

The audit did more than list defects. It showed that ongoing patching would not fully address the accessibility and responsiveness issues, and provided the evidence needed to recommend a broader rebuild.

Working Within Sunwater’s Development Environment

This is the part that does not usually happen.

Sunwater operates within a tightly controlled enterprise environment, so our development process had to work within its existing security, governance and approval requirements. Rather than asking for exceptions, we adapted our workflow to fit the controls already in place.

• Development workflows established within Sunwater’s approved technical environment
• Every change followed a documented review and approval process before deployment 
• Production deployments were coordinated with Sunwater’s technical team and completed through the required approval process 
• The process was designed to work within Sunwater’s existing controls rather than around them.

Rather than asking Sunwater to change its controls, we built a delivery process that worked within them.

Rebuilding for the People Who Use It in an Emergency

We ran a site-wide responsiveness programme, then addressed the accessibility issues through a broader rebuild rather than patching individual contrast problems one at a time. 

• Navigation, footer, home page, news section and the entire About section rebuilt for mobile, including publications, suppliers, leadership and feedback pages
• Accessibility and readability improvements were implemented across key public information pages, including stronger contrast and clearer visual treatment for important alerts and content.
• News section rebuilt with filtering and tagging
• Technical issues addressed across the site, including legacy URL handling in search, redundant CSS and code snippets, an obsolete live chat integration, broken links and multiple rounds of URL redirects.

Consistent Maintenance and Security

• Ongoing monthly maintenance covering WordPress core and plugin updates, supported by regular reporting.
• Dedicated vulnerability patching
• Proactive security monitoring and vulnerability management formed part of the ongoing maintenance programme.

The Wet Season It Was Built For

Then the weather did what no staging environment can.

During one of Queensland’s heaviest wet seasons in years, Sunwater’s dams experienced prolonged spill activity across multiple regions.

At the peak of the wet season, Sunwater activated multiple emergency action plans at the same time, placing significant demand on its public information channels.

Through all of it, the website remained an important public reference point for storage levels, spill notices and Watch and Act alerts, giving communities access to timely information when they needed it.