Novecom is an Approved Supplier for Round 3 of the On Farm Connectivity Program
Round 3 of the Australian Government’s On Farm Connectivity Program is open. It closes at 5.00pm AEDT on Thursday 15 October 2026.
Eligible primary producers get 50% back on the cost of eligible connectivity and monitoring equipment. The minimum rebate is $1,000 and the maximum is $20,000, GST exclusive, per eligible ABN.
Novecom is an Approved Supplier for Round 3, which means we lodge the application on your behalf. Producers cannot apply directly to the department.
This page covers the eligibility criteria, what the rebate covers at our prices, and how the process works. If you would rather talk it through, call David from our AgTech team on +61 2 4924 5460.
You deal with David directly — not a call centre. He works out what your place needs, prices it, and lodges the application for you.
Round 3 has $10 million to allocate across the country, and applications are assessed in the order they reach the department. When the money is allocated, assessment can stop.
So, the useful next step is a conversation, not a decision. Tell us what you are trying to fix and we will work out what your place needs, put the quote together and lodge it for you. Starting early gives us room to get the configuration right rather than rushing it to meet the cut-off.
You do not need to arrive knowing which product you want. It might be a storage you cannot see filling, soil moisture you are guessing at, or a corner of the property that has never reported anything. Start there and we will work back to the equipment.
Every one of these has to be true. None of them can be waived.
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Your ABN has been registered for 12 months or longer at the time you apply.
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You carry out primary production under an eligible ANZSIC code. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries codes are listed in the program guidelines.
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Your average annual gross income across 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 sits between $40,000 and $4 million. That is total revenue before expenses and tax.
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You are not a hobby farmer.
You will also need to show your income. That is either an accountant declaration on the department’s own template, or the income sections from your business tax returns for all three years. It is worth starting that conversation with your accountant early, because it tends to be the step that holds an application up.
If you hold multiple properties under separate ABNs, those properties must be in different locations. One rebate entitlement applies per eligible ABN, up to the $20,000 cap.
If you are not sure whether you fit, ring us. We will talk it through with you first and help you decide whether the program is likely to suit your situation.
You already know where the signal drops out on your place. It is usually the far end of the channel, the back dam, the pump you most need to watch.
So, the monitoring stops there too. You drive out to read a gauge. You find out the storage level changed three days after it happened. You make water decisions on numbers that were true last week.
The On Farm Connectivity Program exists because that gap costs money. It is a connectivity program first. Equipment that assumes you already have mobile coverage does not fix the problem in the places the problem actually lives.
Most farm monitoring equipment is sold as a standalone device with a SIM in it. Every device needs its own carrier connection, and every device stops where the carrier stops.
Novecom SynaptiX® works differently. The devices are designed to work as a connected system, with data moving through the approved network configuration rather than relying on each device to reach a tower on its own. This helps extend monitoring to areas of the property with no usable carrier signal.
That has three practical uses:
Coverage is built from your own devices, not from someone else’s network map.
When Australia’s largest LoRaWAN carrier went into insolvency in early 2025, Novecom customers kept receiving data.
Each unit you add becomes another relay point rather than another subscription to manage.
The SynaptiX Collector is the dedicated gateway and node in our Round 3 catalogue. Where a broader setup needs gateway capability, we will confirm the approved equipment configuration before quoting so your application only includes eligible items and clearly separates any non-rebate components.
Five items are listed on our Round 3 approved equipment list. Prices are GST exclusive and fixed for the life of the program.
Non-contact velocity and level measurement for open channels and irrigation supply.
On-property weather data rather than the nearest town’s forecast.
Profile moisture through the root zone, reported continuously.
See the storage filling and drawing down without driving out to it.
Available separately if you need an additional or spare Collector for an existing Novecom system, or for other compatible Novecom monitoring equipment.
Standalone purchase Already included where required in the monitoring systems above.
These are Novecom’s Round 3 prices as published by the department. They are fixed for the life of the program and cannot be discounted. All figures are GST exclusive.
| Item | Price | Rebate covers | You pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| SynaptiX Open Channel Volumetric Flow metering | $14,232.93 | $7,116.47 | $7,116.46 |
| SynaptiX Weather Station | $5,955.27 | $2,977.64 | $2,977.63 |
| SynaptiX Soil Moisture Monitor | $5,391.98 | $2,695.99 | $2,695.99 |
| SynaptiX Dam Level Monitor | $3,877.60 | $1,938.80 | $1,938.80 |
| SynaptiX Collector | $2,194.50 | $1,097.25 | $1,097.25 |
Flow metering on the channel, dam level on the storage, soil moisture in the crop and weather on the property. The Collector is already included in the equipment pricing.
Open channel flow metering and dam level monitoring. The Collector is already included in the equipment pricing.
Weather station and soil moisture monitoring. The Collector is already included in the equipment pricing.
A note on the $20,000 cap. The four monitoring systems in the whole-farm setup total $29,457.78 GST exclusive, returning a $14,728.89 equipment rebate. The Collector is listed separately on the approved equipment list, but is already included in the monitoring equipment pricing and is not added again. Delivery, installation, training and a one-off subscription covering up to 12 months may also be eligible within the program’s limits, so we will confirm those costs and include eligible items separately on your quote.
We quote for what your operation needs. If that comes in under the cap, the rebate still covers half of it.
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We submit an itemised quote through the business.gov.au portal. You will then receive an automated email, set up an account and complete a short eligibility declaration. We cannot do that part for you.
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Any purchase made before your approval notification comes through is ineligible. This is the most common way a rebate is lost, and it is entirely avoidable.
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Supply, delivery, installation and training all need to be completed within 120 calendar days of your approval notification.
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We take those as part of installation, so it is not something you need to organise.
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It must be dated on or after the program opening date and price every item separately. That is why we cannot work from an older quote, even a recent one.
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The pool for this round is $10 million nationally, and if you have not received a rebate under this program before, your application is assessed first.
Yes. Round 3 of the Australian Government’s On Farm Connectivity Program covers 50 per cent of the cost of eligible monitoring and connectivity equipment, up to $20,000 GST exclusive per eligible ABN. Novecom is an Approved Supplier for Round 3, with open channel flow metering, dam level monitoring, soil moisture monitoring and weather stations on its approved equipment list. The round closes 5.00pm AEDT on 15 October 2026.
The department publishes every Round 3 Approved Supplier and their equipment prices on infrastructure.gov.au, where producers can compare by equipment category. Novecom, which designs and manufactures in Newcastle NSW, supplies SynaptiX® Open Channel Volumetric Flow metering at $14,232.93 GST exclusive. The rebate covers $7,116.47 of that.
The rebate pays 50 per cent, so reaching the $20,000 maximum takes $40,000 of eligible expenditure. A whole-farm setup using Novecom’s four monitoring systems totals $29,457.78 GST exclusive and returns an equipment rebate of $14,728.89. The SynaptiX Collector is already included in package equipment prices, so it is not added again. Delivery, installation, training and a one-off subscription covering up to 12 months are also eligible within program limits and count toward the total.
Yes, within limits. Under the On Farm Connectivity Program, delivery and installation are eligible up to 20 per cent of the equipment price, training up to 10 per cent, and a one-off subscription covering up to 12 months up to 10 per cent. Ongoing internet costs, insurance and equipment maintenance are not eligible.
Yes. Novecom’s SynaptiX devices relay data through each other rather than each connecting separately to a mobile tower. One device is set up as the gateway and carries the data back, which brings paddocks outside carrier coverage into range without depending on a commercial carrier network.
No. Any purchase made before written approval comes through is ineligible under the On Farm Connectivity Program, and it is the most common reason a producer loses the rebate. Once approval arrives, supply, delivery, installation and training must be completed within 120 calendar days.
The Narromine Stock and Domestic Committee needed every meter reporting in real time across a scheme that sits largely outside adequate commercial mobile coverage. Quarterly manual reads are gone.
Tell us what you are trying to monitor and where the coverage falls over. We will tell you whether you are eligible, put together a configuration that suits your operation, and lodge the application for you.
Fill in the form below and we will come back to you.
This equipment received grant funding from the Australian Government.
Program details are current as at 18 September 2026. Round 3 is demand driven and may close earlier than 15 October 2026 if funding is fully allocated. We will confirm current program details before lodging your application.
