Frequently asked questions
Numbat is a free family helper for parents and carers in Western Australia. These answers explain what it does, where its information comes from and what it keeps about your family.
What is Numbat?
Numbat is a free family helper for parents and carers in Western Australia, made by AI4WA. Ask a question in your own words and Numbat brings official WA and Australian guides and council information together, from pregnancy through the baby, kindy and school years until a child turns 18. Every answer links to the official page it came from.
Who is Numbat for?
Numbat is for parents and carers in Western Australia, including people who are expecting a baby. It is not a chat for children. You can add a due date or your children's ages so that answers fit your family's stage.
What questions can Numbat answer?
Numbat answers questions about official WA information for your family's stage, such as “What do I need to do before my son starts school?”, “Which vaccinations are recommended in pregnancy?” or “Where is my local library?”. With your suburb it can list nearby official places: public maternity hospitals, public primary and secondary schools, CAHS community immunisation clinics, public libraries and, in metropolitan Perth, the child health centre allocated to your suburb. It also covers council services such as library programs for children.
What is the family journey?
The family journey shows what is due now and what comes next for each child, with the official links. It is built from a reviewed list of steps from pregnancy to age 17, such as child health checks, vaccinations and kindergarten enrolment, and each step names the agency that publishes it.
Where does Numbat's information come from?
Numbat uses official public web pages and open government datasets. Sources include HealthyWA (WA Department of Health), the Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS), King Edward Memorial Hospital, WA Country Health Service, the Department of Education WA and WA local councils; Services Australia and Fair Work Ombudsman pages are shown as links only. Nearby places come from open datasets published on data.wa.gov.au and from lists published by CAHS, and distances are measured from suburb centres derived from Australian Bureau of Statistics boundaries.
Which areas of Western Australia does Numbat cover?
State and national information, such as HealthyWA and Department of Education WA pages, applies across Western Australia. Council information covers more than 20 local councils, including the City of Stirling, City of Fremantle, City of Joondalup and City of Mandurah. Answers name CAHS for metropolitan Perth and WA Country Health Service for country WA.
Is Numbat free?
Yes. Numbat is free to use, with no payment or subscription.
Do I need an account to use Numbat?
You sign in with your email address to send questions. Numbat emails you a one-time code, so there is no password.
What does Numbat store about my children?
Unless you choose to save your children to your account, your due date and your children's birthdays, with any names or nicknames, are saved only in the web browser on the device you are using, not on Numbat's server. Each question sends only approximate ages in months, or the week of pregnancy, never names or birthdays. If you sign in, you can choose to save your children to your account so they are on your other devices; the account copy holds their birthdays and any names, never the due date, it is never sent to the AI model, and “Remove from account” deletes it. Clearing this browser's site data removes the browser copy.
Are my conversations saved?
When you are signed in, your conversations are saved to your account so you can come back to them; otherwise they are saved only in this browser. You can delete a saved chat from Chats. To answer, Numbat's server sends your question, the recent messages in the conversation, your chosen suburb and your family's approximate ages to an AI model through OpenRouter. Read the privacy page for everything Numbat collects and shares.
How accurate are Numbat's answers?
Numbat answers from official sources and shows them so you can read the details for yourself. Specific milestones, such as the 4-month child health check or kindy age rules, are answered from reviewed official quotes without an AI rewrite; broader questions get an AI-written answer grounded in the matching official pages. Reviewed pages are re-fetched every week. The official page is always the authority, so check it before you act.
Can Numbat book appointments, enrol my child or check eligibility?
No. Numbat does not book, enrol, check vacancies or decide whether your family is eligible; it shows the official information and links to the agency's own page or service. For schools it links to the Department of Education's own address search for the local-intake school, and it does not determine that school itself.
Is Numbat medical advice?
No. Numbat gives general information from official pages and never replaces professional advice. If a question mentions urgent symptoms, Numbat can show a notice quoted word for word from a current official WA health page, such as WA Country Health Service's advice to call 000 in an emergency and healthdirect on 1800 022 222 for non-urgent professional advice.
Can I ask Numbat questions in Chinese?
Yes. You can ask in English or Chinese. Where Numbat shows a Chinese translation of an official quote, the translation is its own, shown beside the English original and labelled unofficial.
Who made Numbat, and is it a government service?
Numbat is an independent project by AI4WA and is not a government service. It is named after Western Australia's animal emblem, and the numbat avatar is an original AI4WA illustration, not a government character. You can contact the team through ai4wa.com.