GovHack 2025 winners announced

GovHack is Australia's largest open government and open data hackathon attracting over 1,000 participants each year. The winners of the Victorian challenges were announced at the GovHack State awards event held on Friday 31 October.

This year, we sponsored 3 challenges based on the 2025 competition themes of:

1. Community empowerment and connection
2. Productivity and innovation
3. Digital safety and trust

We want to thank all who participated in this year’s event from participants to volunteers. Their support for the event is crucial.

Special mention to the group of Victorian Public Service data custodians and open data advocates for helping design the challenges.

GovHack 2025 Victorian winners

Challenge 1: Data-driven reduction in gambling harm for stronger community resilience

How might we use public data to understand and reduce gambling harm in our communities — from protecting young people online to identifying at-risk neighbourhoods and addressing the long-term impacts on families and social connection?

Winner: 'StimuLess' by Team RadGrads

The team reviewed existing laws and looked for gaps in how gambling harm is prevented. They then built a prototype showing how gambling products could be redesigned to remove features that remove features that make them highly addictive and to better protect consumers.

Challenge 2: Delivering the 20-minute neighbourhood plan

How might we use open data to understand and improve the ways people move, work, and access services — creating neighbourhoods that are more liveable, inclusive, and resilient?

Winner: 'Dynamic route optimisation system' by Team Flowcation

Flowcation is a tool that helps city planners see how changes to infrastructure might affect how people move around a city. It uses data to show the flow-on effects on accessibility, fairness, and transport efficiency.

Challenge 3: Enabling better community housing and infrastructure planning

How might we use multiple public datasets, including building permits, to guide communities in planning for housing and services in their local communities — from understanding areas of housing stress to anticipating the impact of future developments on community access, services, and social connection?

Winner: 'CoBuild' by Team Deakin Talent

CoBuild is a tool that helps communities make smarter decisions about how their cities grow. It brings together different types of data, cleans and prepares it, visualises it on a map, and uses AI and community feedback to provide useful scores and insights about urban planning and infrastructure.