Managing one council website is hard enough. Managing a separate site for the regional airport, another for the showground, one for the livestock markets, and one for a theatre convention centre, each with its own content team, design requirements and update cycle, is a different problem entirely. Most councils solve it by buying separate platforms or paying agencies to maintain disconnected sites. Dubbo Regional Council took a different approach.
Running multiple council websites from a single platform means one administration interface, one upgrade cycle, no duplicate licensing. Content teams can actually keep up with the work.
This article covers how Dubbo Regional Council consolidated their main site, two multi-sites and two sub-sites onto the Elcom platform, what that meant for their team in practice, and what other Australian councils managing multiple digital properties can take from their experience.
Why do councils end up running multiple websites in the first place?
Council amalgamations are the most common reason. When two or three councils merge, they typically inherit two or three separate websites, each on a different CMS with different content structures, different publisher workflows and different agency relationships. The NSW forced mergers of 2016 left dozens of councils in exactly this position. Inner West Council ran three separate websites, one each from Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville, plus an interim Elcom-built site, for nearly two years before consolidating everything onto a single platform.
But amalgamation is not the only driver. Many councils operate distinct digital properties for facilities and services they own or manage, including airports, showgrounds, livestock markets, theatres, tourism destinations, economic development zones and libraries. Each one has its own audience, its own brand requirements and its own publishing team. Running each on a separate platform multiplies admin overhead, licensing costs, security patching and upgrade cycles.
The NSW Audit Office found that councils which merged in 2016 were still contending with "duplicated software and databases" years after amalgamation, with system integration cited as a persistent barrier to operational efficiency. (NSW Audit Office, Workforce Reform in Three Amalgamated Councils, 2019)
What did Dubbo Regional Council's multi-site setup actually look like?
Dubbo Regional Council runs five distinct digital properties from a single Elcom installation: the main council website, two independent multi-sites and two sub-sites.
The council originally selected Elcom for the main dubbo.nsw.gov.au site, then brought additional properties onto the same platform.
Since their original implementation, they have run the following from one installation:
- Main council website: (dubbo.nsw.gov.au) the primary resident-facing site covering all council services, news, events and community information
- Dubbo City Regional Airport: a standalone multi-site with its own URL and identity, delivering flight information in an uncluttered, mobile-responsive format
- Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre: a multi-site launched to promote the venue separately from the main council brand
- Dubbo Regional Livestock Markets: a sub-site sharing the council site's look and feel, with its own colour scheme and separate content section
- Dubbo Showground: a sub-site serving events and facility information for the showground
- Dubbo Drought Hub: Now deactivated as it is no longer needed
The Dubbo team report an improved ease of use in managing multiple sites on a central and user-friendly platform, which utilises a shared database of documents and images. The sites also enjoy the same functionality as the main Council site, such as drag and drop online form creator and automated workflows.
Dubbo Regional Council
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What is the difference between a multi-site and a sub-site?
In Elcom's website CMS platform, a multi-site maintains its own URL, identity and brand. The airport site looks like a completely independent website to visitors.
A sub-site shares the main council site's URL structure and carries the parent brand with a distinct colour scheme.
Both share a common content database and administration interface with the main site.
For Dubbo's content team, the practical difference is invisible in day-to-day administration. They manage all five properties through the same interface, with the same publisher workflow and the same search and taxonomy tools. A news article created on the main site can be tagged and surfaced on a sub-site. A new page on the Airport site benefits from the same dynamic widgets that the main site uses, displaying the latest news without manual updates.
What are the real benefits of running multiple council sites from one platform?
The advantages show up across three areas: cost, administration and resident experience.
No additional licensing cost for each new site
Deploying a new sub-site or multi-site in Elcom requires no additional platform licence. It is simply an additional section within the existing installation. For a council weighing up whether to give the showground its own web presence, that makes the decision straightforward. The cost is scoped development and content work, not a new annual platform fee.
One upgrade cycle for all sites
Every multi-site and sub-site on the Elcom platform automatically receives upgrades when the main site is upgraded. Councils running five separate CMS platforms manage five separate upgrade and security patching cycles, often at different times and through different agencies. A single platform collapses that into one scheduled event with one point of contact.
Consistent content governance across all properties
Consistent governance is one of the least-discussed advantages of a multi-site platform. The shared administration interface gives the web team full visibility over what is published across every property. Version control, publisher permissions and approval workflows apply the same way across all sites. A small digital team can realistically oversee multiple properties without a dedicated manager for each one.
Inner West Council demonstrated a similar outcome after consolidating three council websites onto Elcom. Web Coordinator Jessica Prochazkova noted that 40 groups across the council manage and update their own sections through a single interface. One piece of content, always up to date, across the whole organisation.
Better resident experience
Each Dubbo site is designed around how visitors look for information. The main council site groups content by broad categories, with a prominent search bar and a task-based prompt. The airport site delivers flight and facility information in a clean, mobile-responsive layout. Each site is built for its audience, not shaped around internal council structures.
The shift to a multi-site model also improved customer service capacity. Each site gives residents an alternative to telephone or in-person enquiry, reducing call volume and freeing staff time for more complex requests.
How to assess whether your council is ready for a multi-site approach
- List every digital property your council currently maintains, including the main website, facility sites, event microsites, tourism pages and library sites.
- Identify how many different CMS platforms or agencies are involved across those properties.
- Calculate how many separate upgrade, patching and security events your IT team manages per year.
- Ask each content team how long a basic update takes and who approves it before it goes live.
- Identify where content is duplicated across sites and where inconsistencies have caused resident confusion or complaints.
Is a multi-site CMS approach right for every council?
Not every council needs five sites on one platform right away. The model becomes most valuable when a council is managing distinct audiences that need separate brands or URLs, when the content team is small relative to the number of properties being maintained, or when upcoming projects would otherwise require a separate platform purchase.
For councils that went through amalgamation and are still running legacy CMS platforms from former council areas, a multi-site consolidation is often the most practical path to a single, governed digital environment. Leaving separate platforms running indefinitely creates compounding technical debt, inconsistent resident experience and security exposure as older platforms fall behind on updates.
| Scenario |
Separate platforms |
Multi-site on one platform |
| Licensing cost per new site |
New licence required |
No additional licence |
| Upgrade and patching |
Separate cycle per platform |
One cycle, all sites updated |
| Content administration |
Separate login per platform |
Single interface for all sites |
| Content governance |
Different rules per platform |
Consistent permissions and workflows |
| Shared content and images |
Manual duplication required |
Shared database, one source of truth |
| Brand flexibility |
Full flexibility, full overhead |
Separate identity per site, shared infrastructure |
Outcomes will vary depending on platform, scope and council size. Confirm specifics with your vendor.
How does Elcom's multi-site capability work in practice?
Elcom's website CMS is built for exactly this kind of multi-property environment. The platform's enterprise content management layer handles shared databases, taxonomy management, dynamic widgets and approval workflows across all sites from one administration interface. Publishers on the Airport site use the same tools as publishers on the main council site, and the same search infrastructure indexes content across all properties.
Councils managing both a public website and an internal staff intranet can run both from Elcom's digital experience platform, rather than maintaining separate systems. The same applies to council portals for community services or resident self-service transactions. Pre-built connectors for Microsoft 365, SharePoint and other systems mean council data does not sit in isolation on the website. Because the platform is Australian-built and hosted locally, councils meet data sovereignty requirements without additional configuration.
For councils considering a website consolidation, Elcom's CMS buyers guide covers the key evaluation criteria in detail, including multi-site capability, accessibility compliance, integration requirements and total cost of ownership. The website redesign best practices guide is a useful starting point for councils mapping out a consolidation project.
What should councils ask before committing to a multi-site platform?
A platform decision is a long-term commitment. Before signing anything, councils should have clear answers to the questions below to confirm the platform fits their actual operating environment.
- Does the platform support true multi-site with separate URLs, or only sub-directories?
- Is there an additional licensing cost for each new site added to the network?
- Are upgrades applied automatically across all sites in the network?
- Can content and images be shared across sites without manual duplication?
- Does the platform meet WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility requirements out of the box?
- Where is data hosted, and does the vendor have Australian-based support?
- What is the realistic implementation timeline for a council of your size?
Elcom works with local councils across Australia on exactly these projects. The government solutions page covers the platform's local government credentials in detail. If you want to talk through what a consolidation project might look like for your council's digital footprint, the team is available for a no-obligation consultation.
Why should councils consolidate their websites onto one platform?
Councils running multiple websites on separate platforms carry unnecessary overhead: duplicate licensing, fragmented content governance and separate upgrade cycles for every property. Dubbo Regional Council's experience shows what the alternative looks like. Five distinct sites, one platform, one administration interface, no additional licensing per site. For councils managing growing digital footprints with lean teams and tight budgets, that is a meaningful operational difference.
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