Brisbane South PHN Website Refresh
A website refresh for Brisbane South PHN, with a new sitemap and mega menu, rewritten content and a refreshed design, so health professionals in the region can find information more easily.
- Website Platforms
- GovCMS Drupal Development
GovCMS Drupal Development Services Australia
GovCMS websites built for complex content, accessibility and long-term ownership.
We design, build and support GovCMS websites for Australian government teams managing complex content, accessibility requirements and connected systems. We can assess an existing site, plan a migration, deliver the Drupal build and remain involved after launch.
Platform fit
Is GovCMS the right platform?
The platform should follow the requirements. These are the conditions we test before recommending GovCMS.
A good fit when
The GovCMS hosting service suits eligible government entities that want shared Australian infrastructure and a defined security and support model. The open-source distribution may also suit teams that want its Drupal configuration while arranging hosting and operations separately.
Consider another option when
Another option may be better for a bespoke application with complex domain logic, a small site that does not need the GovCMS operating model, or a team whose required modules and integrations do not fit the chosen SaaS or PaaS responsibilities.
Related content and platform work
Projects demonstrating the content, accessibility, migration and integration work we bring to a GovCMS project.
WorkUP Queensland Website Refresh
A WordPress website refresh for WorkUP Queensland, with a content strategy workshop, new sitemap, accessible design, search and filtering, and Humanitix and Microsoft Dynamics integrations.
Pasifika and Māori Health and Wellbeing Strategy Website
A website for the Pasifika and Māori Health and Wellbeing Strategy, with strategy updates, resources and a search engine for local community services.
Rumble's Quest Child Wellbeing Measurement & Reporting Platform
Rumble's Quest measures the social and emotional wellbeing of primary school children across Australia. We build and maintain the web tools that process game results and report them back to schools and educators.
Want something like this for your organisation?
Tell us what you are trying to achieve. We will clarify the requirements and recommend a sensible next step before defining scope, timing, and cost.
What clients say about working with us
“Digital Bird was excellent to work with. After countless attempts with speaking with agencies and other web design contractors, we finally found Jonathan and the team, and what a blessing that was. The project was handled end to end, with clear communication the entire time. We have now engaged Jonathan and the team for on-going website management and work due to how well things turned out. If you are on the fence about which direction to go, I highly recommend just taking a call with Jonathan and the team and seeing what you can achieve together.”
Will Cross
Head of Marketing & Partnerships, ROH Wheels
Google reviews
“We have used Jonathan for a number of years to develop and maintain our rather complicated Online Portal and website. Jonathan is always extremely responsive to requests and proactive in ensuring our online presence is safe, presents well and is functional to our customers needs. We would definitely recommend Jonathan for your custom web development needs.”
Nathan Smith
Marketing Manager, East Coast Bullbars
“Digital Bird is my first pick for delivering web projects on time, on budget and to the brief — every time.
Beyond being a delight to work with, Jonathan Bird is that rare breed of developer who is both masterful on the tools (an absolute Laravel whizz!) while also being adept at engaging the client in UX-thinking, to which he applies expert insights, gained through years of experience, to help further improve the end design for the target user’s experience.
This powerful combination of skills means that 4 years on and a variety of projects later (from search directories to corporate website developments), Digital Bird firmly remains my first pick for developer.”
Emma Keller
Communications Manager, Brisbane South PHN
“We’ve been working with Jonathan Bird for our website maintenance, and he has been nothing short of exceptional. Jonathan consistently goes above and beyond, responding quickly whenever we need help and resolving issues with impressive turnaround time. His communication is clear and thorough — he always explains what the problem was, how he fixed it, and provides helpful recommendations for long-term solutions. It’s rare to find someone this reliable and proactive. Highly recommend!”
Nichola Ross
Marketing Manager, Rapidline (FurnX Commercial Furniture)
“Digital Bird has had a huge influence on our business providing many solutions besides just a fantastic reliable website. Jonathan is great to work with and has a solution to every challenge. Jonathan also has the ability to “dumb it down” and provide timely advice and assistance if something goes astray. With Jonathan we have in excess of 99% uptime on all three websites.”
Jeff Ross
Director, Impact Office Supplies
“Velg Training has had an excellent experience working with Digital Bird. Jonathan has supported us with a complex Laravel/PHP website and has brought a rare mix of deep technical knowledge, practical problem solving, and clear communication.
He has assisted with major infrastructure and platform work across AWS, Laravel Forge, Cloudflare, Redis, S3, Sentry, PayWay, Mailchimp/Mandrill and related integrations. His work has included setting up and migrating infrastructure, improving performance, resolving production issues, monitoring errors, modernising legacy code, and strengthening the reliability of key business workflows such as checkout, invoicing, membership exports, PDF generation, transactional emails and background queues.
What stands out most is that Jonathan does not just “fix the ticket”. He investigates properly, explains the cause in plain language, and looks for the right long-term solution rather than quick patches. He has helped us move away from fragile legacy processes, improve automated testing, reduce errors, improve email reliability, address performance bottlenecks, and make the platform easier to maintain into the future.
He is responsive, thorough and highly professional, with an obvious understanding of business-critical websites and custom web applications. We would happily recommend Jonathan to any organisation needing a skilled, reliable and commercially minded Laravel/PHP web developer.”
Leonie Davis
Director, Content and Strategy, Velg Training
“Was an absolute pleasure to work with Jonathan. Could not be happier with our new website! Professional, responsive, brilliant communication from the beginning to go live. If you are fortunate enough to be in a conversation with Jonathan for a new site - just do it!”
Alex Brennan
Director, Blue Ink Office Supplies
“I’ve worked with Jonathan from Digital Bird for several years and found him to be a highly competent developer who often exceeds expectations.
Together, we’ve collaborated on a number of medium-sized platforms serving hundreds of thousands of users, including learning management systems, a widely-used school well-being platform, trade promotion competition sites, and more.
Jonathan is very skilled in API and platform integration, payment systems (such as Stripe), AWS, internet security, and more. As a Project Manager/Product Owner, I feel very confident working with Jonathan and recommending his services to our clients.”
Zachary Bavas
Technical Operations, Invision Media
“Highly recommend Jonathan for anything web development in Brisbane and Australia-wide. Have worked with a lot of developers over the years and Jonathan’s work and communication on projects has been a clear standout. A very talent developer if you’re looking for anything from WordPress, Shopify, Laravel, or anything in-between.”
Brodie Clark
Director, Brodie Clark SEO Consulting
“Jonathan Bird is one of the best I have worked with in this space. He is responsive, clever and contributes to the brief, and most importantly, he is a great person to work with. It can be hard to find the right people who can take on something and lift it to another dimension. Jonathan does that and more.”
Mark Gold
Director of Corporate Affairs, AMA Group Ltd
Capabilities
GovCMS delivery from assessment to ongoing support
Advisory, design, development, migration, accessibility, integration, training and support. The work can be scoped as a complete project or as a specific assessment, migration or remediation package.
Strategic advisory and site assessment
We review the existing site across content, information architecture, accessibility, performance, integrations and technical debt, then provide a costed recommendation. The assessment can be commissioned as a fixed piece of work before a larger project is approved.
User experience, design and theming
Audience research, navigation and page design applied as a GovCMS theme, working with the design system your entity already follows. Editors get page-building components they can use without needing a developer for every layout.
Drupal development on SaaS and PaaS
Configuration and site building inside the constraints of the SaaS distribution, or custom modules, a wider module set and a full deployment pipeline on PaaS. We determine which model the requirements need before the work is scoped.
Content migration off legacy systems
We inventory the existing content, agree what should be migrated and how it will be structured, then run repeatable scripted migrations. Redirects and migration checks are included so the result can be reviewed before launch.
Integrations and automation
Connecting the site to the systems behind it: forms and case management, CRM, event registrations, data feeds, publication repositories and notification services. We design the failure handling, retries and reconciliation before the connection is built.
Accessibility audits and remediation
WCAG 2.2 Level AA testing across the main user journeys, combining automated checks with manual keyboard, screen reader and responsive testing. Findings include remediation work and evidence within an agreed audit scope.
Search, analytics and content discovery
We design taxonomy, faceted search, filtered listings and related-content pathways around the questions people bring to the site. Search analytics show which queries succeed, which fail and where content is difficult to find.
Training, documentation and support
Author training based on the content your team publishes, written documentation that remains useful after staff changes, and support from the people who built the site.
Operating model
Decide who will host and maintain the Drupal application.
The GovCMS distribution can run on independently arranged hosting. Entities using the GovCMS hosting service choose SaaS or PaaS, which divide the Drupal maintenance and security responsibilities differently.
Open-source distribution
Arrange hosting and operations separately.
Your entity or provider is responsible for infrastructure, security, Drupal updates, backups and support.
GovCMS SaaS
Hosting and Drupal maintenance are included.
GovCMS provides infrastructure, backups, web protection, Drupal security updates and application maintenance. Your entity manages its content, users and theme within the SaaS restrictions.
GovCMS PaaS
Hosting is included; Drupal is self-managed.
GovCMS provides infrastructure and backups. Your entity manages the Drupal application, security updates, modules and themes. Web protection and additional support are optional.
We assess the operating responsibility before recommending a model.
We check the required modules and integrations, the SaaS restrictions, security obligations and who will patch and upgrade Drupal after launch. That determines whether independent hosting, SaaS or PaaS is workable for the project.
Responsibilities
A GovCMS hosting plan does not cover the whole site.
The coverage differs between SaaS and PaaS. In both cases, the entity remains responsible for its content, users, data collection, integrations and legal obligations.
Accessibility
The Australian Human Rights Commission recommends WCAG 2.2 Level AA as a minimum. Conformance depends on both the templates and the published content, so testing and content governance continue after launch.
Privacy
Forms, analytics, third party scripts and integrations can collect or transmit personal information. Your entity decides what is captured, where it goes and how long it is kept under the Australian Privacy Principles.
Security boundaries
SaaS includes Drupal application security updates. PaaS covers the infrastructure layer, while the entity manages application patching, modules and themes. User access and connected-system credentials remain the entity’s responsibility on both plans.
Records and content
Published material carries recordkeeping, currency and review obligations. A useful content model makes ownership and review dates visible to the editors responsible for them.
How our team works
The people who scope the work are the people who do it.
Government projects often run across long timelines and changing stakeholders. The people who make the platform, content and accessibility decisions remain available after launch.
- Direct access to senior people
- Design and development working closely together
- Technical advice from the people responsible for implementation
- Senior developers remain involved throughout delivery
- The same team supports the site after launch
“Digital Bird is my first pick for delivering web projects on time, on budget and to the brief — every time. Beyond being a delight to work with, Jonathan Bird is that rare breed of developer who is both masterful on the tools (an absolute Laravel whizz!) while also being adept at engaging the client in UX-thinking, to which he applies expert insights, gained through years of experience, to help further improve the end design for the target user’s experience. This powerful combination of skills means that 4 years on and a variety of projects later (from search directories to corporate website developments), Digital Bird firmly remains my first pick for developer.”
Process
From the first decision to ongoing improvement
We keep strategy, design, development, and technical ownership close together. Your team is involved at the decision points, with clear recommendations and visible progress throughout.
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Step 1: Understand
Clarify the audience, business problem, constraints, content, and measures of success.
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Step 2: Recommend
Explain the viable options and trade-offs, then recommend the simplest sound approach.
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Step 3: Plan
Agree priorities, responsibilities, scope, timing, and the decisions your stakeholders need to make.
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Step 4: Design and build
Work in visible increments while strategy, user experience, content, and engineering remain connected.
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Step 5: Validate and launch
Test the important journeys, performance, accessibility, content, integrations, and operational readiness.
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Step 6: Improve
Monitor the live system, resolve issues, and continue improving it as requirements change.
Free strategy session or RFQ
Send the brief, the RFQ or the problem.
Tell us the entity, the current platform, whether you are on SaaS or PaaS, and what is not working. We will review it before the session and come prepared with questions and initial recommendations.
Already have a brief or RFQ?
Attach it above. We will flag complexity, risks or assumptions worth resolving before the project begins. Initial project discussions are treated as confidential.
Prefer to request a session directly?
FAQ
GovCMS Project Questions
Common questions from government teams about the distribution, hosting models, accessibility, migration and support.
Both GovCMS hosting plans include Drupal hosting, infrastructure maintenance and backups. SaaS also includes Drupal security updates, application maintenance, web protection and broader support, while your entity manages its content, users and theme within the SaaS restrictions. With PaaS, the service maintains the infrastructure and your entity is responsible for the Drupal application, including security updates, modules and themes. The choice depends on the functionality required and who can operate the application after launch.
GovCMS now uses Drupal 11. SaaS application upgrades were delivered through the service, while PaaS teams remain responsible for assessing and updating their modules, themes and application code. A PaaS site that has not been reviewed since the Drupal 11 change should be assessed before further feature work.
We audit the existing content with your content owners, decide what will be retained and agree the structure of the new site. The migration is scripted and repeatable, with redirects for changed URLs. For a large site, we run several migration passes so the content and redirects can be checked before launch.
We audit the agreed pages, templates and components against WCAG 2.2 Level AA, complete the remediation and document the test results. The scope records what was tested and any accessibility responsibilities that remain with content authors. An independent conformance statement can be included when required.
On SaaS, the GovCMS service covers the hosting platform, web protection, Drupal security updates and application maintenance. Your entity still manages its content, users, theme, data collection and connected systems. On PaaS, only the infrastructure layer is covered by the GovCMS IRAP assessment; your entity is responsible for assessing and securing the Drupal application layer.
Yes. We can work with an existing supplier on a defined programme of work, accessibility remediation, migration or integration. We agree responsibilities, code ownership and handover requirements in writing before starting.
Yes. Attach a PDF, Word or Excel document to the enquiry form. We will review it and identify complexity, risks or assumptions that should be resolved before the scope is finalised. Initial discussions are treated as confidential.