The Department of Primary Industries, Water & Environment (DPIWE) Web sites are a key part of the agency's strategic focus - creating partnerships and delivering quality services and advice to their staff and clients.

The Internet site, formally launched in May 2002, brings together content from throughout the Department, replacing a variety of Web sites using different layouts, technologies and content management strategies.

The Intranet site provides a single point of reference for staff for issues relating to their work, and includes sections for each division.

The project was focused on providing ongoing maintenance of content, ensuring that layout and design was isolated from the information provided on the site. Content management principles were applied, creating a multi-level publishing hierarchy, independent from the site's thematic presentation. Additionally, there was a need to ensure that the site was reliable, including internal link management, to prevent broken links or the removal of content used elsewhere on the site.

The site design involved liaison with a graphic artist from Digital Ink, an understanding of clients' view of the agency, and a focus on delivering an easy to use, accessible Web site. A key feature of the site is a text only version, which delivers a complete, up-to-date, copy of the site for users with special needs (eg low bandwidth, visual impairment). Additionally, the site complies with the Tasmanian Government Web Publishing Standards (GWPS, formerly known as GIPS).

The search engine on the site uses AGLS metadata to provide a filtered search, and was tuned to query specific metadata elements to ensure the most useful results are presented to the user. The search engine was also designed to meet industry best practice in terms of usability and presentation of results.

The DPIWE Web sites demonstrate our ability to: