The Bureau of Meteorology’s heatwave warnings run from October to March, and nobody wants to take a quote call on a tin roof at 2pm. Our AI assistant answers for you, books the routine jobs and texts you the urgent ones.
OffsiteMate gives Rockhampton tradies an AI receptionist for the calls they can’t take. It tells callers it’s your assistant, asks what the job is, fits routine work into the gaps in your diary, and texts you anything urgent before ringing you.
A sole trader pays A$299 a month, which covers 100 minutes and 150 texts, and A$299 for setup. We do that over the phone from Wagga Wagga, NSW, and you don’t change your number.
Rockhampton Regional Council lists heatwaves as one of the region’s three highest-risk disasters, with bushfires and floods. It defines a heatwave as three days where the maximum and minimum temperatures are unusually hot, and names people working outdoors as particularly vulnerable.
The Bureau of Meteorology issues heatwave forecasts and warnings generally from October until the end of March. A warning covers a severe or extreme heatwave in the next 4 days, and goes out at 3pm local time.
The Bureau also says heatwaves can interrupt cooling and refrigeration and affect electricity supply. That’s the week an air con tech can least afford to stop and answer the phone.
You decide what counts as urgent. For air con and electrical work, these are where we start. Everything else gets booked.
When the phone rings and you’re up a ladder in a heatwave, the choices are a missed call or a dropped screwdriver. Your assistant answers instead, gets the name, suburb and what’s wrong, and books routine work into ServiceM8, Fergus, Google Calendar or Outlook.
The urgent ones from your list get texted to you, then it rings you. Rather take calls yourself when you’re on the ground? It can ring your phone first and only pick up when you don’t.
If a heatwave warning means you’re changing your hours for a few days, text us and we’ll change the assistant’s booking times to match.
Rockhampton Regional Council keeps these numbers on its disaster management pages. Want your assistant to mention one? Text us.
Ergon Energy, 13 16 70, or triple zero. The council lists it for life-threatening emergencies only. Ergon runs regional Queensland’s network and answers any hour.
Ergon’s faults line, 13 22 96, any hour. It’s also Ergon’s first call for a hot water system gone cold, before an electrician is booked.
07 4932 9000, which the council lists for 24-hour water main and service repairs and sewer blockages. Fitzroy River Water is the council’s water and sewerage business.
1300 22 55 77, the council’s after-hours emergency contact.
The SES, 132 500, when it isn’t life-threatening. If it is, triple zero.
Queensland’s gas safety page says the supplier’s emergency number is on the bill. For the Wide Bay gas pipeline, which runs between Maryborough and Rockhampton, the corridor emergency line is 1800 017 000.
From Rockhampton Regional Council’s emergency contacts, department contacts and Fitzroy River Water pages, Ergon Energy’s contact and electrical contractor fee pages, the Queensland Government’s gas safety page and the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group’s emergency contacts page. Read October 2026.
Your assistant answers on all of them at the same price, and only books jobs on a holiday if your hours include it. Queensland keeps the same clock all year, with no daylight saving.
| 2026 | 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | Thursday 1 January | Friday 1 January |
| Australia Day | Monday 26 January | Tuesday 26 January |
| Good Friday | Friday 3 April | Friday 26 March |
| The day after Good Friday | 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 | Monday 26 April |
| Labour Day | Monday 4 May | Monday 3 May |
| Rockhampton Agricultural Show (show holiday) | Thursday 11 June | Set each year by the Queensland Government |
| King’s Birthday | Monday 5 October | Monday 4 October |
| Christmas Eve, 6pm to midnight | Thursday 24 December | Friday 24 December |
| Christmas Day | Friday 25 December | Saturday 25 December and Monday 27 December |
| Boxing Day | Saturday 26 December and Monday 28 December | Sunday 26 December and Tuesday 28 December |
From the Queensland Government’s public holidays and show holiday pages, read October 2026, and the Fair Work Ombudsman on daylight saving. The show holiday was Thursday 11 June for the Rockhampton region and Friday 12 June for the Shire of Livingstone, so a customer across the boundary had the next day off. 2027 show days weren’t published when we checked. We add the next dates as they’re announced.
Queensland electrical contractors have to give the customer a certificate when the job’s done, under the Electrical Safety Regulation 2026. Installation work gets a certificate of testing and compliance, and work on equipment gets one of testing and safety.
Either way it carries the contractor’s licence number. WorkSafe Queensland says the details can go on the invoice, as long as the contractor keeps a copy for five years.
Customers can check an electrical contractor licence through the Electrical Safety Office’s search, a builder or trade contractor on the QBCC register, and a gas fitter on the Resources Safety and Health Queensland portal.
If a caller asks for your licence number before they book, your assistant can give it, once you’ve sent it to us.
The ABS counted 945 construction businesses in the Rockhampton council area at 30 June 2025, up from 844 in 2021. The Rockhampton urban area had 83,508 people at 30 June 2025 (ABS estimate), and the council area’s median age in 2024 was 37.3, a little younger than Queensland’s 38.5.
A customer whose call rings out doesn’t have to look far for the next number. We’d rather they got your assistant.
A Rockhampton air con tech and a Rockhampton tiler want different calls texted to them in January. Each trade page shows where we start.
The price is the same in Rocky as anywhere else. Pick the one for how many people work in the business.
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. We’re in Wagga Wagga, NSW, and Rocky tradies get set up the same way as everyone else, over the phone. Ring us on 0468 075 000 and you’ll get a person.
Yes. It answers every day, show day and public holidays included, at the same price. It only books jobs on those days if your hours include them, so text us your days off.
Calls come out of the minutes in your plan, 100 a month for a sole trader. After that it’s A$0.49 a minute, and texts over the 150 are A$0.25 each.
Yes. Landlines in the Rockhampton charging district start with 07 48, 07 49, 07 78 or 07 79, and your number stays with your phone company. It forwards to the assistant’s own Australian mobile number. Landlines forward differently to mobiles, so ring us and we’ll sort it with you.
An AI one. It sounds Australian, says up front that it’s your assistant and books jobs in. It won’t put a caller through to you, though. It takes the number and you ring back.
A$299 a month for a sole trader, A$449 for 2 to 4 people, A$799 for 5 to 10. Setup is A$299 for a sole trader or A$499 for a team. It’s month to month, and there’s no GST on top.
Ring us on the number below, or email. Either way, a human gets back to you.
0468 075 000Or email hello@offsitemate.com.au
