For people starting a business from a spare room, a shed, a market stall or a farm gate anywhere in the Bundaberg Region, from Bargara and Burnett Heads to Childers, Gin Gin and Woodgate: a first website arranged from your own words and photos, with a .com.au registered to you and a business email that's ready on day one. You see the draft before you pay anything.
Most new businesses here start at home, and Bundaberg Regional Council's planning rules for home-based businesses are specific about hours, visitors and signs. A good first website works with those limits instead of against them: it does the signposting a small sign can't, and it spreads visitors out so you never have a queue in the driveway.
Council's home-based business factsheet sets customer-facing hours of 8am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays and public holidays, while office work can happen any time. So the site lists those visiting hours plainly, and the enquiry form takes messages around the clock for you to answer in the evening.
In a house, the factsheet allows three visiting customers at a time and eight a day; in a unit or duplex it's two at a time and four a day. A clear "by appointment" line, or a booking request form that asks for a preferred time, keeps you inside those numbers without turning anyone away at the gate.
A home business sign here is limited to half a square metre and can't be lit. The website does the rest: a photo of your front gate, where to park, and which side entrance to use. If you'd rather not publish your street address, show the suburb and send the full address when you confirm the booking.
If you sell at weekend markets or from a roadside stall, a short "where to find us" section listing each market, its day and what you'll have that week saves a lot of messages. We change it whenever you email us, and those text edits are covered by hosting.
The region was formed in 2008 from the City of Bundaberg and the Burnett, Isis and Kolan shires, and people still search by their own town. If you'll travel, name the places: Bargara, Elliott Heads, Burnett Heads, Childers, Gin Gin, Woodgate. A mobile business that only goes to some of them should say so.
The home rules cap the business area at 40 square metres on a lot up to 2,000 square metres, or 80 on a bigger block, with one full-time worker who doesn't live there. When you move into a shed or shopfront, the site changes its address and hours; the domain, email and pages stay yours.
The Queensland-wide help, Business Launchpad for working out which licences and permits apply and Mentoring for Growth once you're trading, is explained on our page for new Brisbane businesses. What changes in Bundaberg is the local layer: the Bundaberg Regional Council Planning Scheme and council's food licensing rules.
Council's home-based business factsheet says that in most cases a home-based business won't need a development application. It is accepted development, subject to requirements, if it meets the Home Based Business Code and sits in one of a listed set of zones, including the low, medium and high density residential, rural residential and rural zones. It has to be a genuine home business: one business per property, run by the person living there, inside the house or its yard, with no change to the outside of the building. Beyond the area, visitor and hours limits above, the factsheet asks for no more than one commercial vehicle on site, vehicles under 2.5 tonnes carrying capacity, two deliveries a day by nothing bigger than a courier van, storage kept inside or screened at the back, and no public display of goods. If the business can't meet those, a code assessable application is needed. Council's duty planner takes questions on 1300 883 699 or at duty.planner@bundaberg.qld.gov.au, and its interactive mapping shows your zone and overlays.
A bed and breakfast has its own limits in the same factsheet: it must run inside a dwelling house rather than a duplex or unit, with no more than three guest bedrooms plus at least one bedroom that isn't for guests, no more than six guests at once and stays of no more than fourteen nights in a row. For someone opening a B&B near the beaches at Bargara or out among the farms, that sets what the website shows: a page per room, how many people each sleeps and a maximum stay that matches the rules.
Food is licensed separately. Council's food safety and licensing page treats a domestic kitchen used to sell food as fixed food premises, and a market stall as a temporary food business, licensed for a year or for a single event. If you trade in more than one council area, say at Bundaberg markets and in Hervey Bay, which is in the Fraser Coast council area, you need a licence from each council. Some sellers may not need a licence at all, including those selling only whole fruit and vegetables, pre-packaged food, or spreads such as honey and peanut butter, though the Food Act 2006 still applies. A new licensed business must have its food safety supervisor certificate before handling food, and council offers food handlers a free online training course. For a new stall or home kitchen, that decides when the site can start taking orders.
We're an Adelaide team and work with Bundaberg businesses by phone and email; we don't travel to the region. None of our clients is in Bundaberg, so the two sites below are from New South Wales and South Australia. You email your words and photos, we send a draft link you can check on your phone, and you pay once you've approved it.
Neither client is in Queensland, and we don't call them start-ups because we don't know how long each had been trading when it came to us. We picked them because they show the two shapes most first sites take: a single page for an owner-operator in a regional area, and a small multi-page site with a founder's story at its centre.
Bobcat and excavator work, structural landscaping and licensed pool building across the Bega Valley in regional NSW. One page carries three service sections, a 42-photo gallery that swipes on a phone, a testimonial carousel, a contact form with a thank-you page and tap-to-call.
Visit the Tomi's Bobcat site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
In-home support for older people across Northern Adelaide. Six pages, with nine services explained on one of them, a founder about page, an enquiry form that lets aged care providers make referrals, large readable text and tap-to-call on every page.
Visit the Golden Years Aged Care site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“He listened to my feedback and made no hesitations to revise and adjust my website until we were completely happy with it.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
$399
Everything on one page: what you do, the towns you cover, visiting hours or "by appointment", your ABN and a contact form, with the .com.au and email set up together.
Suits most home-based starts
$899
A home page, a page for your services or products, and a page with your hours, markets and a contact form that asks for a preferred time, plus directions to a home premises.
$1,499
For a B&B with a page per room, several product lines, or a stall plus an order enquiry form, with FAQs and Google Analytics visitor stats.
Usually not. Bundaberg Regional Council's factsheet says most home-based businesses don't need a development application, as long as they meet the Home Based Business Code and are in one of the listed zones. The limits include visiting hours of 8am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and up to eight customers a day in a house. Council's duty planner on 1300 883 699 can check your property; we look after the website.
It doesn't have to. Many home businesses show the suburb or town only and send the street address when they confirm an appointment, which also keeps visits spread out. If customers do come to you, we add a photo of the entrance and parking notes, since council limits a home business sign to half a square metre and no lighting.
What a guest needs to book: a page or section for each room, how many it sleeps, what's included, and your minimum and maximum stay. Council's factsheet allows up to three guest bedrooms, six guests at once and fourteen nights in a row, so we set the site up around those numbers. Guests can send a booking request by form, or we can build in online booking and payment, quoted for the job.
It can change your licences. Bundaberg Regional Council says a business trading in more than one council area needs a food licence from each council, and Hervey Bay is in the Fraser Coast area. Some sellers, such as those with only whole fruit and vegetables or pre-packaged food, may not need a licence. On the site, a list of markets and days keeps regulars coming back.
By phone and email. We talk through what you'll offer, you send your words and photos, and we send a draft link to check on your phone. You ask for as many changes as you like and pay once you approve it. Most sites are live within 5–10 days of us getting your words and photos; bigger sites (up to 8 pages) take 2–3 weeks.
Tell us what you'll offer, whether customers will come to you or you'll go to them, and which towns or markets you'll cover. We'll check the .com.au, quote the site and send a draft; you pay only after you've approved it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au