Inventor of bushfire alert app in line for major gong

Mr Morris founded Bushfire.io last year in the hopes pooling government and weather data to map fire hotspots could help frontline workers and save lives.

The idea came to him last summer while on the NSW South Coast at Ulladulla. He'd planned to head further south but found out a fire on the highway had blocked the road.

The Fires Near Me app didn't give any advice to evacuate or which way the fire might head.

Three days later he'd built a platform which combined data from the NSW and Victorian fire apps with traffic and weather data.

Bushfire.io ran off a $30 Raspberry Pi - a credit card-sized computer designed to teach basic computer science in schools and developing countries. Within a month, the platform had 120,000 unique users.

The creation has landed Mr Morris among the 5500 Australians nominated for an Australian of the Year Award. A "humbling" but "weird" experience, Mr Morris said.

Mr Morris always hoped the platform could save lives but from the start was conscious about what could happen if something went wrong and was focused on doing everything he could to prevent that.

"We're effectively using government information and putting it out there in a different form," he said.

"So if people don't interpret the information correctly or equipment failed and the site is not available or ... warnings that should have gone out at 9 o'clock in the morning go out at 3 o'clock in the afternoon."

One of the first aspects of the website was a feedback form, which Mr Morris saw as a "safety switch" to ensure the platform was working how users needed it to.

If something went wrong with the app, the worst could have happened and it could cost lives not save them, Mr Morris said.

From the outset however, it was found to be incredibly useful, especially for those on the fireground.

NSW Rural Fire Service volunteer Mark Carroll first saw the app while on the firefront.

A long-term colleague of Mr Morris', he came with much-needed feedback - how to make this work best for the first responders who needed it. He has since joined Mr Morris in growing the idea.

Twelve months on Mr Morris is deciding what he wants the future of his app to be. He hopes to expand its capability beyond bushfires, to provide accurate data for storms, floods and cyclones.

"My car was written off at the start of the year in the hailstorm, I want to know if there's a storm coming for my car ... and I kind of assume there's other people that will want that kind of information as well," he said.

"Feels like a lot can be gained from it but at the same time it's a pretty new area that has been very much left to the government.

"Over the past 12 months we've been collecting the data and almost getting ready for it."

International expansion is also on the cards, with Mr Morris looking at the possibility of providing services in the United States, Canada and possibly beyond.