Sources, checks and corrections
How this guide is made
The guide starts from public sources: Sydney.com, the NSW Government, the councils, Beachwatch, OpenStreetMap and Open-Meteo. Claude, an AI model, drafts each page and ties every fact to its source and date. Alex, a Bondi local, approves each change. Live readings update on their own.
Where do the facts come from?
From public sources. Each page lists its sources, and the Sources page lists them all.
The guide keeps one list of 65 facts. Each fact has a value, a source, the date it was checked and who checked it. Pages take their numbers from this list, so two pages give the same answer. A check stops a guide page that types in a number by hand.
Who checks the pages?
Alex approves every change before it goes live.
Claude checks each fact against its source and records the date. Every guide page says whether Alex has walked that part and checked the page. Until then, it says the page is awaiting a local check.
How is the data kept up to date?
The conditions page gets new readings from Open-Meteo and Beachwatch every 15 minutes, and shows the time of each one.
If a source does not answer, the page shows the last reading it has, with its time. The monthly charts average Open-Meteo's records: the sea since 2022, and the air, rain and waves since 2016. Sunrise and sunset come from the NOAA solar equations. The Sources page shows when each dataset was last fetched.
Where does AI come in?
Claude, made by Anthropic, drafts the pages and runs the data and the checks. Alex decides what goes live.
Every change runs through the checks before Alex sees it. On every page, they look for broken links, words the guide never uses and American spelling. Guide pages also need a short answer at the top, a source line under every table and chart, and plain sentences.
What will the guide never do?
- Judge the water for you. It quotes Beachwatch's forecast and grade, and asks you to swim between the red and yellow flags. Beachsafe has patrol times for each beach.
- Use stock photos. Every photo is Alex's own.
- Copy another guide's words.
- Show a live reading without its time and source.
What can I reuse?
The data keeps its own licence. Credit the source when you use it.
- Map, toilets, taps and pools: OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
- Sea, air, rain and waves: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0.
- Water quality: Beachwatch, © State Government of NSW and NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, CC BY 4.0.
- Height of the path: SRTM 30 m via OpenTopoData, public domain (nasa srtm).