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Ambulance Victoria response times by council area, 2018-19

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Publisher Ambulance VictoriaUpdated no longerLicence CC BY 4.0Latest 2025-06-04Rows 169Fields 5

Ambulance Victoria's response time performance by Local Government Area for 2018-19. Each row is one council area and dispatch code, with the share of Code 1 incidents reached within 15 minutes, the average response time in seconds and the number of incidents. The portal lists earlier years too, but their files are no longer served by the publisher, so only 2018-19 is here.

Also called: Ambulance Victoria LGA response time performance, Code 1 ambulance response times by LGA, Victorian ambulance response times by council.

Part of Ambulance Victoria response time performance, 2 tables the publisher releases together: Ambulance Victoria response times by town and city, 2017-18.

Before you use it
What does each row hold?
One council area and dispatch code, Code 1 or Code 2, for the 2018-19 financial year, with the share of incidents reached within 15 minutes, the average response time in seconds and the number of incidents. The publisher reports the 15 minute share for Code 1 only, so it is blank on Code 2 rows.
Why are there rows that are not council areas?
The publisher adds rows for Unincorporated Vic, Interstate LGAs and its Total AV, and ends both the Code 1 and the Code 2 table with a note on Moonee Valley, where inter hospital transfers arriving by air lengthen Code 2 times. These rows are kept as published.
Why is there a row that repeats the column names?
The publisher's file holds the Code 1 table and then the Code 2 table, and repeats the header row between them. That row is kept as published, with its number columns null.
Why is the share within 15 minutes text?
The publisher writes it with a percent sign, such as 51.1%, and it is kept as written.

Made for agents

Connect your AI agent

Any agent that connects to publicdata.au/mcp can find this dataset, read its 5 fields, count and filter across all 169 rows and diff its versions. Every answer names the version and carries Ambulance Victoria's attribution. No key.

Then ask it: What does Ambulance Victoria response times by council area, 2018-19 hold, and what changed in the newest version?

claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp

One command. No key, no account, no sign-up.

Download it as Excel, CSV, JSON and 6 more formats

Pick a format and a version. Excel is picked first because it opens in the tools most offices have. The URL is yours to keep. A dated version never changes.

Format
"Latest" redirects to the newest version and will change when the publisher releases again. A dated version never changes.
https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/latest/data.xlsx
Download

In your own tools

Use it in Excel, R, Python and more

Excel and Power BI read the CSV from its address and refresh from it. The R and Python packages take any dataset on this site by its slug, so a new dataset needs no new release. The DuckDB file attaches read-only over HTTPS, and a query reads only the blocks it touches.

The dated URL in the code never changes. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/latest/ redirects to the newest version.

https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/latest/data.csv

In Excel choose Data, then From Web, and paste this address. Excel keeps it, so Refresh All reads the newest version. A sheet holds about a million rows; past that, load the query to the Data Model.

What is in it

Column names are made snake_case and the publisher's original header is kept beside each one. Blank cells are null. Nothing is added, removed, ranked or summarised.

FieldTypePublisher's headerNote
lga_namestringLGA Name
final_dispatch_codestringFinal Dispatch CodeCode 1 is a lights and sirens response, Code 2 an urgent response without them.
pct_within_15_minsstring%<=15minsThe share of incidents reached within 15 minutes, with its percent sign. Code 1 only.
avg_response_secondsintegerAVG RT - Seconds
total_incidentsintegerTotal Number

Download this table as a data dictionary (Excel), or read it as a Frictionless Table Schema at schema.json.

The first 10 rows

From the latest version, in the publisher's order, with every field. A blank cell is shown as null.

lga_namefinal_dispatch_codepct_within_15_minsavg_response_secondstotal_incidents
AlpineCode 151.1%1219573
AraratCode 166.0%875588
BallaratCode 189.7%6186051
BanyuleCode 191.4%5945415
Bass CoastCode 168.2%8422325
Baw BawCode 169.5%8422510
BaysideCode 189.8%6303433
BenallaCode 163.8%903821
BoroondaraCode 190.8%6165076
BrimbankCode 189.7%6139894
The first row as JSON

As it appears in data.json.

GET https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/latest/data.json
{
  "lga_name": "Alpine",
  "final_dispatch_code": "Code 1",
  "pct_within_15_mins": "51.1%",
  "avg_response_seconds": 1219,
  "total_incidents": 573
}

Query it without downloading

The query API returns only the rows you ask for, as JSON, NDJSON or CSV, from the same typed rows as the files. It needs no key. Build a query here and run it, then copy the URL or the code into your own work.

Try rows or aggregate for this dataset. The query builder needs JavaScript.

How filters work

Each filter is field=operator.value in the query string, and every filter must match. A number or date field compares as a number or date, and a text field compares as text. Values are case-sensitive except with ilike. Prefix not. to negate a filter, as not.eq.value.

OperatorWhat it matches
eq.valueEqual to the value.
neq.valueNot equal to the value. A blank cell does not match.
gt.valueGreater than the value.
gte.valueGreater than or equal to the value.
lt.valueLess than the value.
lte.valueLess than or equal to the value.
like.*text*Matches a pattern where * stands for any run of characters. Case-sensitive.
ilike.*text*The same as like, ignoring case.
in.(a,b,c)Equal to any value in the list. A value cannot contain a comma.
is.nullBlank in the source, or suppressed by the publisher.
ParameterWhat it does
selectFields to return, comma-separated. Every field when absent.
orderfield.asc or field.desc, comma-separated. The publisher's row order when absent.
limitRows per page, 1 to 10,000. 100 when absent.
offsetRows to skip. The next URL in each answer sets it for you.
groupOn aggregate, fields to group by, comma-separated.
metricOn aggregate, count, sum.field, avg.field, min.field or max.field, comma-separated. count when absent.
formatjson, ndjson or csv. JSON carries the provenance header, and the others carry it in response headers.

Without a version the API answers from the newest loaded version, and that answer changes when the publisher releases again. Put versions/<date>/ before rows or aggregate for an answer that never changes. /api/v1/datasets/<slug>/versions lists the loaded versions. The 1 newest version is loaded; versions lists them.

The API allows 60 requests in 10 seconds from one address. Above that it answers 429 for 10 seconds with a Retry-After header, a RateLimit-Policy header and a JSON body that gives the limit. Every API answer carries the same RateLimit-Policy. A client should wait the Retry-After seconds, or read the files, which have no limit. openapi.json describes this dataset's query paths for client generators and agents.

https://publicdata.au/mcp is a remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP with the same tools, defined in the same place, so a tool added to the pages is added here too. It needs no key and no account. The row tools are held to the query API's limit of 60 queries in 10 seconds from one address, and each call is two queries because it also counts the matching rows. Add it to Claude Code with claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp, add the URL in Claude as a custom connector, or give it to any client that connects to remote MCP servers. Each queryable dataset is also a resource at https://publicdata.au/d/<slug>/fields.json, which lists its fields with their types, the publisher's descriptions, their ranges and the values they hold, so an agent can read a dataset's shape before it writes a query.

What changed

One version for every release the publisher has made since this site started following the dataset. The date is the day the file changed on the portal.

  • 2025-06-04
    169 rows5 fieldsutf-8-sigb4aeb40b76bc

versions.json · changes.json · history.tar.zst (6.5 KB, every version's Parquet and manifest)

Questions

How do I download Ambulance Victoria response times by council area as a CSV file?

Open https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/latest/data.csv. It redirects to the newest dated version, which is https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/v/2025-06-04/data.csv today. The same path serves Excel, JSON, Parquet, SQLite, DuckDB, NDJSON, Arrow. A dated URL never changes, so use it when the file must stay the same.

Can I open Ambulance Victoria response times by council area in Excel?

Yes. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/v/2025-06-04/data.xlsx is a workbook with the 169 rows on a records sheet, the field list on a second sheet and the provenance on a third. The CSV also opens in Excel. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/v/2025-06-04/data.csv.gz is the CSV at about a tenth of the size.

What years does Ambulance Victoria response times by council area cover?

The current version covers the years since 2018. Each release from Ambulance Victoria becomes a new dated version here, and earlier versions stay online.

How often is Ambulance Victoria response times by council area updated?

Ambulance Victoria no longer updates it. This site checks the portal every week and adds a dated version when the file changes.

Can I use Ambulance Victoria response times by council area commercially?

Yes. CC BY 4.0 allows commercial use, redistribution and derived works as long as the attribution is kept. The attribution string is in this page's side column and inside every file.

Is this the official source for Ambulance Victoria response times by council area?

No. The publisher is Ambulance Victoria, and its page is https://discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/ambulance-victoria-lga-response-time-performance. This site republishes the publisher's file without changing its content. The original sits beside every version as source.csv with its SHA-256, so the two can be compared.

What this site did to the data. Cells were typed, headers were renamed and the encoding was made UTF-8. Rows were left alone. The publisher's file sits beside every version as source.csv so the change can be checked.

The publisher releases Ambulance Victoria response time performance as 2 files at once, so all 2 tables here share a version date.