It answers when you’re on the tools, says it’s your assistant and takes down the job, address included. Routine work gets booked. Emergencies get texted to you.
OffsiteMate is an AI receptionist for Ballarat tradies. When you can’t get to the phone, any hour, it answers as your business, says it’s your assistant and works out what the job is. Routine work goes in your calendar when you’re free. Anything urgent is texted to you straight away, then it rings you.
It’s A$299 a month for a sole trader. That includes 100 minutes and 150 texts, and setup is A$299 once. We do the setting up by phone from Wagga Wagga, NSW.
Ballarat had 120,939 people at 30 June 2025 (ABS estimate), and the ABS counted 2,010 construction businesses in the Ballarat council area that day. Its council also employs full-time heritage advisors, which matters more on the phone than you’d think.
A heritage overlay is a planning control on land with heritage significance, and the City of Ballarat decides changes to places inside its local overlay. Its heritage advisors give guidance on demolition, alterations and additions, new buildings in heritage precincts, restoration and repair, and the colours, materials and finishes of the work.
The council points owners to Heritage Victoria’s guidelines, read with the heritage clauses of the Ballarat Planning Scheme. There’s one each for external painting, fences, demolition, alterations and additions, new buildings, signs, landscaping and trees, and subdivision.
Whether a property is in an overlay shows on a free property report from the Victorian Government’s land and property information site. We don’t give planning advice, and neither does the assistant. The address is still worth having before you ring back, so you can check.
It only knows what you’ve told us, so these are the instructions we’d set up with you.
Heritage Victoria has a guideline just for external painting. When a caller mentions an old house or a heritage street, the assistant takes the address and what’s to be painted, and sends both with the job.
Alterations, demolition, new buildings and fences each have their own guideline. The assistant gets the address and what’s planned, so you can check the overlay before you quote.
The City of Ballarat says guidelines for solar panels on heritage buildings are coming soon. Until then it sends questions to its statutory planning team through customer service on 5320 5500.
From the City of Ballarat’s heritage and heritage planning permits pages, read October 2026.
Where its main runs outside the property, Central Highlands Water looks after the sewer connection drain up to the first inspection shaft inside the boundary. If that shaft is more than a metre in, or there isn’t one, its part stops one metre inside the boundary. The property service drain past that point is the owner’s.
Say a plumber finds and confirms the blockage is in Central Highlands Water’s pipework, and rings it. The corporation says it then reimburses reasonable costs: A$200 in normal working hours and A$250 after hours, which it counts from 4pm to 7am.
One toilet slow? It says that usually means the property’s own pipes. Every sewer point slow, sewage spilling when nothing’s running, or bubbling with no fixtures in use? That goes to its faults line, 1800 061 514.
If it’s called to a blockage and the inspection shaft or boundary trap is buried, it asks the owner to have it raised to surface level. And a plumber who changes a property’s service drain has to send the water authority an updated Property Sewerage Plan within 14 days.
When it’s the network’s problem, these are the lines, and each one answers around the clock. Want your assistant to mention one? Text us and we’ll add it.
| Ring them for | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Powercor | Power outages and faults on the poles and wires. The City of Ballarat sends residents to Powercor’s site for outage information. | 13 24 12, 24 hours |
| AusNet | Gas leaks, gas faults and hazards. Its gas network covers central and western Victoria, Ballarat included. | 13 67 07, 24 hours |
| Central Highlands Water | Water and sewerage emergencies, and finding out who owns a blocked sewer. It serves Ballarat and seven other council areas. | 1800 061 514, 24 hours (press 1 for faults) |
From Powercor’s help page, the City of Ballarat’s storm page, AusNet’s contact page and Ballarat gas mains page, Energy Safe Victoria’s gas emergencies page, and Central Highlands Water’s fault, sewer blockage and service region pages. All read October 2026.
AusNet says some of the cast iron gas mains along Sturt Street went in as far back as 1880, when coal gas was the main fuel. Over two years it swapped around 30 km of low-pressure mains in the Ballarat CBD and nearby suburbs for high-pressure poly pipe. That included 14.5 km along Sturt Street in 2022 and 2023.
The sewers are getting a turn too. Central Highlands Water says Ballarat’s two largest sewer lines, Ballarat East and Ballarat South, were built almost 100 years ago, and it’s laying new lines beside them in stages. Stage 1 is finished, stage 2 runs from White Flat Oval along the Yarrowee River to south of Prest Street, and stage 3 is being planned.
None of it is your job. It does explain some of the roadworks.
Same list as the rest of Victoria. The phone gets answered on every one, at no extra cost, and jobs only go in on days your hours include.
| 2026 | 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | Thursday 1 January | Friday 1 January |
| Australia Day | Monday 26 January | Tuesday 26 January |
| Labour Day | Monday 9 March | Monday 8 March |
| Good Friday | Friday 3 April | Friday 26 March |
| Saturday before Easter Sunday | Saturday 4 April | Saturday 27 March |
| Easter Sunday | Sunday 5 April | Sunday 28 March |
| Easter Monday | Monday 6 April | Monday 29 March |
| Anzac Day | Saturday 25 April | Sunday 25 April |
| King’s Birthday | Monday 8 June | Monday 14 June |
| Friday before the AFL Grand Final | Friday 25 September | The Friday before the 2027 Grand Final |
| Melbourne Cup | Tuesday 3 November | Tuesday 2 November |
| Christmas Day | Friday 25 December | Saturday 25 December, plus Monday 27 December |
| Boxing Day | Saturday 26 December, plus Monday 28 December | Sunday 26 December, plus Tuesday 28 December |
Dates: Business Victoria’s holiday pages for 2026 and 2027, read October 2026. Anzac Day gets no extra day when it falls on a weekend. Melbourne Cup is a holiday across Victoria unless a council outside Melbourne has arranged a local holiday instead. We add the next dates as they’re announced.
Painters, builders and plumbers in Ballarat get very different calls. The trade pages show what we’d text you about and what can wait.
Pick by how many people are in the business. Ballarat pays what everyone else pays.
Sole traders on the tools
A$299a month
About A$9.83 a day. Plus A$299 setup, once. Month to month.
Talk to the humansA small crew
A$449a month
Plus A$499 setup, once. Month to month.
Talk to the humansA bigger team with more phones ringing
A$799a month
Plus A$499 setup, once. Month to month.
Talk to the humansGo over your minutes or texts and it keeps answering: A$0.49 a minute and A$0.25 a text. It’s month to month, because 12 months is a big commitment to make to a robot. That’s the whole price. Nothing gets added on top. Questions? Ring us on 0468 075 000 or email hello@offsitemate.com.au.
No. Our base is Wagga Wagga, NSW, and setup happens over the phone wherever you work. Ring us on 0468 075 000 and you get a human.
Electricians are on Energy Safe Victoria’s public registers. Plumbers, gasfitters and builders are on the Building and Plumbing Commission’s practitioner search. Send us the number and the assistant will read it out to anyone who asks.
Yes. Ballarat’s landlines are 03 numbers, and under the national numbering plan, local numbers starting 33, 43 and 53 belong to the Ararat, Ballarat, Horsham and Nhill charging districts. The number stays yours and gets forwarded to your assistant’s own Australian mobile number. Landline forwarding works differently, so ring us and we’ll sort it out with your provider.
No. It answers from what you’ve told us. It can ask for the address, and the Victorian Government’s free property report shows whether a heritage overlay applies.
Ballarat pays the national price: A$299 a month for a sole trader, with 100 minutes and 150 texts included, and A$299 once for setup. Go over the allowance and it’s A$0.49 a minute and A$0.25 a text. No GST is added.
Ring us on the number below, or email. Either way, a human gets back to you.
0468 075 000Or email hello@offsitemate.com.au
