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24th Sep 2021

Leading Australian Covid-19 tracking website revealed to be run by three teenagers

Stephen Porzio

They have received tons of praise for their work, as well as a job offer.

It has been revealed that three teenagers in Melbourne are behind one of Australia’s most authoritative Covid-19 tracking sites.

Since April 2021, CovidbaseAU has been collecting data on Covid-19 released by the Australian government in different places and formats and displaying the information on its website so that it is more accessible to the public.

Until Thursday (23 September), the people behind the site were anonymous.

However, they have now unveiled their identities to the world on Twitter, revealing themselves as 15-year-olds Jack and Darcy, and 14-year-old Wesley.

They made the announcment on the day they received their first dose of the Moderna vaccine.

Speaking to ABC TV, the teens explained that Jack is the data person, Darcy handles coding and Wesley is an all-rounder, helping to keep on top of events, as well as making infographics and emojis.

“Last year, I just personally started tracking the data myself just for fun,” Jack said.

“Darcy is really skilled with coding and I’m really into the news… so we decided to take what we’d been doing and create something with it.

“We’ve spent a lot of time on it to try and make it as comprehensive as possible.”

Jack also said that while lockdown gave the trio a lot of time to manage the website, it can be “a bit of juggling act” balancing the work with school.

However, he assured ABC TV: “We do get all our school stuff done, don’t worry.”

The Twitter post in which they revealed their identities went viral, attracting thousands of likes and retweets, with many praising their work.

The trio were even offered a part-time job in the comments from the head of public health at Melbourne’s Burnet Institute, something the teenagers said they would be “definitely open to”.

To check out the teens’ work, visit CovidbaseAU’s website here.

Main image via CovidBaseAU/Twitter

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