Yarra Valley Waterwheel

Timber roof trusses and skylights in a high gallery ceiling

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Legal

How we look after your data, the terms of using this site, and credits for the imagery you see here. See also our Accessibility statement.

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026

Waterwheel Hub Inc (trading as Yarra Valley Tourism Information Centre) operates this site at yarravalleywaterwheel.org. We’re a volunteer-run community organisation in the Upper Yarra Valley, and we take the trust you place in us with your personal information seriously. This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, how we look after it, and what control you have over it.

The Inc. is unlikely to meet the Australian Privacy Act’s $3M turnover threshold, so the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) don’t strictly apply to us. We’ve written this policy in the spirit of the APPs anyway, because we want members and visitors to know what happens to their data.

What we collect

We only collect what we need to run the Hub and its programs. Specifically:

  • Newsletter: the email address you provide and a record of whether you’ve confirmed it (double opt-in).
  • Contact form: the name, email, and message you send us. Stored briefly while we triage your enquiry.
  • Membership: your name, email, postcode, phone number, and the membership tier you chose. Your payment card details go directly to Stripe — we never see or store them. We record your membership status (active / lapsed / cancelled) and the renewal date.
  • Donations: the donation amount, the name you give us at checkout, and your email (so we can send a thank-you). Card details go straight to Stripe.
  • Maker / accommodation / trader listings: the business name, contact details, photos, and copy you publish on your listing. This is public by design.
  • Itineraries: the plan you build using the visitor tool — title, stops, notes. Private by default (only you can see it) unless you choose to share a link.
  • Volunteer documents: if you download a member-only document, we log which document and when, so the committee can spot unusual access patterns.
  • Login activity: if you reset your password, the email we send you records the IP address and browser the request came from, so you can flag it if it wasn’t you.
  • Shop purchases: your email address and phone number, your name if you choose to give it, and what you ordered. Before you pay, we email you a one-time link to confirm your address. That isn’t to put you through hoops: without an account, a mistyped email would mean no receipt and no way for us to reach you. We ask for your phone number only in case we need to contact you about collection or postage, and we use it for nothing else. Your payment card goes straight to Square, and we never see or store it. Buying something never adds you to our newsletter or any mailing list; that is always a separate choice you make yourself. If you tick the box at checkout, we’ll also create an account for you so you can see your order history. An account isn’t a membership.

Cookies and tracking

This site sets three cookies of its own, and none of them track you. A session cookie when you log in, so the site knows it’s you on the next page. A basket cookie that remembers what’s in your shop basket for up to 7 days. And, once you’ve confirmed your email at checkout, a cookie that remembers that for up to 12 months so you don’t have to confirm it again. Each one holds a random code, never your name or email address.

We also use Google Analytics to understand how people find and use the site: which pages are visited, how visitors arrived (for example from a search engine or one of our social media posts), what kind of device they used, and roughly where they are, by country or region. It sets its own cookies (their names start with _ga), which last up to two years. Google Analytics doesn’t tell us your name, email address or street address, and we don’t use it for advertising or to build a profile of any individual. If you’d rather not be counted, you can install Google’s opt-out browser add-on or block cookies in your browser; the site works the same either way.

When you check out through Stripe (memberships, donations) or Square (the shop), those services set their own cookies on their own domains — they have their own privacy policies, linked below.

Who handles your data on our behalf

We use a small set of trusted services to run the site and its programs. Each is a separate legal entity with its own privacy policy:

  • Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, France) — newsletter delivery, transactional emails (welcome / renewal / receipts), and SMTP relay for every email our site sends. Receives: your email address, name, membership tier, and the content of the email. Brevo privacy policy.
  • Stripe Payments Australia Pty Ltd — payment processing for memberships and donations. Receives: your name, email, postcode, payment card (tokenised), and the amount you paid. Stripe privacy policy.
  • Square AU Pty Ltd — shop checkout and product catalogue. Receives: your name, email, shipping address (if you order something posted), what you ordered, and your tokenised card. Square privacy policy.
  • Google LLC (Google Analytics) — website visit statistics. Receives: the pages you visit, how you arrived, your device and browser type, and an approximate location worked out from your IP address. Google privacy policy.
  • FluentSMTP (WPMission) — relays email from the site to Brevo. Doesn’t store anything separately; data passes through to Brevo above.

How long we keep things

  • Donations: kept for 7 years — Australian Tax Office record-keeping requirement.
  • Shop orders: the contact details on an order are kept with the order for 7 years, alongside our other financial records. A confirmed checkout email is remembered for 12 months, then forgotten.
  • Website analytics: Google Analytics keeps visit data for 14 months, then deletes it.

Public-by-default vs. private-by-default

  • Maker, accommodation, and trader listings are public — that’s the point of having a listing. You control the words and photos through the front-end editor at /manage-artist/, /manage-accommodation/, /manage-trader/, etc.
  • Member directory at /members/ is opt-in only. Your name doesn’t appear there unless you tick the “List me in the public member directory” box on your /my-account/ page. You can untick at any time.
  • Donor wall is opt-in at the moment of donation: the donation form asks if we may list your name. Default is anonymous.
  • Visitor itineraries you build are private to you. You can generate a share link to send to a friend — only people with that link can see the plan; it’s never indexed by search engines.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

  • Tell you what personal information we hold about you.
  • Correct anything that’s wrong.
  • Delete your account and the data attached to it (with the caveat that any donation records we’re legally required to keep will be anonymised but not deleted, per the retention period above).
  • Unsubscribe from the newsletter (every email has an unsubscribe link; you can also email us).
  • Remove a listing you’ve published — it’ll be hidden from public view straight away, and we’ll do our best to take it down anywhere we’ve featured it. We can’t recall content that’s already been cached by third parties like the Internet Archive, search engines, or anyone who saved it.

Email info@yarravalleywaterwheel.org with your request. We’ll verify it’s you (we’ll reply to the email address we have on file) and then act on it. We’re volunteer-run, so we can’t promise a fixed turnaround time — but we’ll respond as soon as we reasonably can.

How we look after your data

  • Our site runs on a managed server with HTTPS-only access.
  • Payment card details never touch our servers — they go straight to Stripe or Square.
  • Member-only documents are stored outside the public web root and served through an access-controlled handler.
  • Volunteer access to member data is limited to what each volunteer needs for their role.

Children

The Hub welcomes families. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you’re a parent or guardian and notice we’ve collected something from a child, please email us and we’ll remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when we add new features or change how we work with personal data. The “last updated” date at the top of this section changes when we revise it. If a change is significant, we’ll mention it in the newsletter.

Privacy contact

Email: info@yarravalleywaterwheel.org
Post: Waterwheel Hub Inc, PO Box 498, Warburton VIC 3799

Terms of Use

Last updated: 16 June 2026

These terms apply to your use of yarravalleywaterwheel.org and any account, membership, or listing you hold with Waterwheel Hub Inc (the “Hub”, “we”, “us”). By using the site or signing up for a membership, you agree to these terms.

About us

The site is operated by Waterwheel Hub Inc, an Incorporated Association based in Warburton, Victoria, trading as Yarra Valley Tourism Information Centre. The Hub is volunteer-run and member-supported.

Your account

  • You’re responsible for keeping your login details secure. If you think someone else has used your account, email us straight away.
  • One person, one account. Don’t share your login.
  • You must give us accurate contact details and keep them up to date — we use them for newsletters, renewal reminders, and any urgent operational matters.
  • We may suspend or close an account if it’s used in a way that breaches these terms, or if the membership fee is unpaid after we’ve reminded you.

Member content (listings, photos, copy you upload)

If your membership tier includes a public listing — Maker, Accommodation, or Trader — you can upload photos, copy, and contact details that appear on the public site.

  • You warrant ownership. You confirm you own the copyright to the photos and copy you upload, or that you have permission from the copyright holder to use them on this site.
  • Licence to us. You grant Waterwheel Hub Inc a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display your submitted content on this site and in promotional materials (newsletters, social media, printed visitor guides) for as long as your listing is active. We won’t sell your content or licence it to third parties.
  • Moderation. We reserve the right to remove any content that breaches these terms, the Hub’s code of conduct, or any law — without notice if the breach is serious.
  • Removal on request. Ending your listing or membership soft-deletes your content from public view straight away. We can’t recall content that’s already been cached or saved elsewhere (search engines, the Internet Archive, screenshots, social shares).
  • Indemnity for content claims. If a third party claims your content infringes their rights and you can’t show ownership or permission, you’ll indemnify the Hub for any costs reasonably incurred dealing with the claim.

Itineraries and shared links

  • Itineraries you build are private to your account by default.
  • You can generate a share link to send to friends. Anyone with the link can view that itinerary. Don’t include personal information in itinerary names or notes that you wouldn’t be comfortable being seen by anyone you share the link with.
  • We don’t index shared itineraries in search engines.

Memberships

  • Each membership tier has its own benefits and terms — see the membership page for details and the tier-specific T&Cs at /membership/terms/<tier>/.
  • Memberships are annual by default and renew on the anniversary of your join date unless you cancel.
  • You can cancel future renewals at any time from the billing portal linked on your /my-account/ page. Cancellation stops future charges; we don’t pro-rate refunds for the current year.
  • If your payment fails, we’ll try again over a short window and email you about it. If it stays unpaid, the membership lapses and benefits pause.

Donations

Donations are voluntary and (at present) not tax-deductible — the Hub is not currently DGR-endorsed. We’ll send you a thank-you record by email but it isn’t an ATO-compliant tax receipt. If the donor wall is in place, your name only appears there if you ticked the opt-in box at checkout.

Shop purchases

Shop checkout is handled by Square. Their refund, shipping, and dispute terms apply to the payment side. Product-specific returns or warranty issues are handled by the Hub — contact us if something arrives broken or doesn’t match the listing.

Acceptable use

When using the site, don’t:

  • Post content that’s unlawful, defamatory, harassing, hateful, or sexually explicit.
  • Use the site to send spam, scrape other members’ contact details, or impersonate anyone.
  • Try to break into the site, probe for vulnerabilities, or interfere with how it runs.
  • Use automated tools to register accounts, build listings, or harvest data.

If you see something that breaches these rules, please tell us so we can act on it.

Intellectual property

The site design, code, photography commissioned by the Hub, and editorial copy are owned by Waterwheel Hub Inc or licensed to it. You may share links to public pages; please ask before reproducing whole pages or photos elsewhere.

Third-party links and content

The site links to external sites (Stripe checkout, Square checkout, makers’ own pages, partner attractions, government tourism pages, etc.). The Hub isn’t responsible for the content, policies, or practices of those external sites.

Disclaimer and liability

We try to keep the site accurate and available, but we can’t guarantee it’ll be free of errors, interruptions, or downtime. To the extent permitted by Australian law, the Hub’s liability for any loss arising from your use of the site is limited to re-supplying the relevant service or refunding the relevant fee. Nothing in these terms excludes any consumer rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law that can’t be excluded.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms when our services change. The “last updated” date at the top of this section changes when we revise them. If a change is significant, we’ll mention it in the newsletter or on your account dashboard. Continued use of the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of Victoria, Australia. Any dispute that can’t be resolved by conversation goes to the courts of Victoria.

Terms contact

Email: info@yarravalleywaterwheel.org for general site / terms enquiries or privacy and data matters.
Post: Waterwheel Hub Inc, PO Box 498, Warburton VIC 3799

Image & media credits

We source imagery responsibly and credit it here. Each entry below links the image to its author, source, and licence.