Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
This Policy explains how we collect, use, store and share the personal information that we collect from you.
OVERVIEW
The Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas (ABN 97 134 682 189) trading as The Wheeler Centre (Wheeler Centre, we, us or our) supports and amplifies the many voices that make sense of the world through books, writing and storytelling. The Centre is committed to the discussion of ideas to enhance and strengthen the creative connections we share.
Our vision is to inspire curiosity, connection and engagement through the transformative power of storytelling. We engage with audiences online, via direct mail and in person at the Performance Space at 176 Little Lonsdale Street, next to the State Library in Melbourne’s CBD.
This Wheeler Centre’s Privacy Policy explains the measures we take to implement the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Act). It also aims to answer the questions you might have about how we collect, use and disclose the information you share with us, including your personal information. If you have any further questions about the Wheeler Centre’s privacy practices, please contact us.
1. PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal Information is any detail or an opinion about an individual where their identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained (personal information), whether true or not.
Sensitive Information is a subset of Personal Information and includes information or opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union, sexual orientation, criminal record, and health, genetic or biometric information (sensitive information).
By using the website located at www.wheelercentre.com (website), including to submit applications to us for fellowships or other programs, to buy or reserve tickets to our events, to subscribe to the e-newsletter or set up an account, you are consenting to The Wheeler Centre making use of the information we collect from you, including your personal information, in accordance with the terms of this policy.
2. WHAT THIS POLICY IS ABOUT
What information we collect from you?
We collect personal information:
● directly from you when you apply for a fellowship, mentorship, award or scheme at the Wheeler Centre, such as the Hot Desk fellowship, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Signal Boost or The Next Chapter writers’ scheme
● directly from you in correspondence, phone calls and other direct means of communication
● directly and indirectly from you when you visit or use the website
● directly from you when you interact with the Centre’s social media accounts
● directly from you when you purchase or reserve tickets to our events through the Website or other correspondence with us
● directly from you when you make a donation
● directly from you when you contact us in regard to accessibility requirements
● indirectly from you via any third-party sites or platforms through which you access our products and services, or interact with us (third party sites)
This information may include:
● information provided in registering to use the website and third party sites – for example, your name, email address, contact details and, if provided, your credit card details
● information provided directly by you as a participant on the website and third party sites, such as information you disclose in forms, discussion forums, on our blogs, in sending messages or emails to us directly or via our social media accounts, YouTube channel, or any other spaces where you are able to make comments
● information provided directly by you to us, such as in applications for Wheeler Centre mentorships, fellowships and administered awards, correspondence, phone calls and other direct means of communication
● information provided directly by you when you book tickets to our events
● information provided directly by you, or on your behalf, to us when advising us of special access requirements prior to or when attending our venues and events
● information provided indirectly by you as a result of your use of the website and third party sites – for example, the frequency with which and the times at which you use the website and third party sites and information about your preferences and interests
Third Party Sites
The Wheeler Centre’s ticketing and Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) program is hosted by Tessitura Network Inc. as a sub-licensee of Melbourne International Festival of the Arts Limited (ACN 058 535 863), organiser of RISING (“Organisations”).
When your name and contact details (e.g. address, email and phone numbers) are provided to The Wheeler Centre, such as collection via telephone, in person or through The Wheeler Centre's website ticketing pathway, they are entered into this CRM. These details are collected so The Wheeler Centre can process your current and future transactions as effectively as possible without asking you to provide the same information repeatedly. Your personal information will only be accessed by The Wheeler Centre when and where is appropriate or necessary. However, the Organisations can view your name and contact details.
If you follow a link on the website to a third party site (such as when you buy a ticket or make a donation through Tessitura Network Inc.), any personal information you disclose on that third party site will be subject to that third party site’s privacy policy. In some instances, that third party site may share your information with us in accordance with its privacy policy.
Health and sensitive Information
You may elect to disclose health or sensitive information to us when applying for fellowships, mentorships or awards offered by The Wheeler Centre. This disclosure is most likely to occur where programs or schemes have the objective of increasing diversity in the writers’ community – such as in the case of The Next Chapter scheme – and you may wish to share sensitive information about yourself to demonstrate how you fit with the mentorships’ objectives.
Where we solicit health or other sensitive information from you, we will only use that information for the purpose of assessing your application and for our own internal reporting mechanisms. For any additional purposes, such as reporting to funding bodies or for other external reporting obligations, we will de-identify the data so you will not be able to be identified. Once your participation in the specific scheme or program has finished, any sensitive information will be de-identified.
When you submit an application to us via the website, the application will be stored on reputable third-party servers some of which are based overseas as disclosed below under the heading ‘security’. If you are concerned about the transfer of your data overseas or the effect this has on your rights and remedies, please contact us and we will work with you to find an alternative solution in accordance with our obligations under the Act.
You may also elect to disclose sensitive information to us when advising of special access requirements prior to or when attending events. We will only use that information for the purpose for which it is provided.
Information collected indirectly from you from the website
In order to provide the website’s users with the best online experience and tailor the site to better suit users’ needs, we collect visitor information related to browser and operating systems.
Cookies are small data files that a web server places on a user’s hard drive to record aspects of that user’s experience of the website. Cookies enable our system to recognise you when you visit the Website, which helps us track basic visitor information. Where you make online transactions, we also use cookies to assist in providing security for the transaction.
Many web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can disable this function by changing your browser settings.
3. WHAT WE DO WITH THIS INFORMATION
We collect information to improve and expand our audience’s engagement with The Wheeler Centre and the world of writing, books and ideas. We also collect information to provide you with your use of the website.
We may also use your personal information for related purposes such as:
● communicating with you, including advising you of upcoming releases of fellowships, mentorships, awards, features or events
● processing and issuing tickets
● processing and recording donations, grants or sponsorship funds
● to record information about our users’ usage, preferences and behaviour in relation to the Website and third party sites, as well as any site feedback you share with us
● to perform statistical analyses of user behaviour and engagement
● maintaining our relationship with you, including responding to your questions
● performing internal accounting and administration, including for reporting purposes
● protecting you and The Wheeler Centre from fraud
● any other use for which we obtain your permission
4. SHARING YOUR INFORMATION WITH OTHERS
The Wheeler Centre recognises the trust you place in us when you give us your personal information. Other than disclosure to service providers (explained below) or as required by law (for example, disclosure to various government departments or to courts), our policy is that we do not give your personal information to other organisations unless we have disclosed the use in this policy or you have given us your consent to do so.
Occasionally, The Wheeler Centre might also use your personal information for other purposes or share your information with another organisation because:
● we believe it is necessary to provide you with a service which you have requested
● we believe it is necessary to protect the rights, property or personal safety of another website user
● we believe it is necessary to do so to prevent or help detect fraud or serious credit infringements - for example, we may share information with law enforcement agencies and fraud prevention units
● we believe it is necessary to protect the interests of The Wheeler Centre – for example, disclosure to a court in the event of legal action to which The Wheeler Centre is a party
● the assets and operations of The Wheeler Centre’s business are being transferred to another party as a going concern
When we share information with other organisations and service providers as set out above, we do so in accordance with this policy. To the extent that these organisations and service providers gain access to your personal information, their use is governed by the Act.
We may share overall user trends and other generic information collected on this website with our sponsors, advertisers, funding bodies and other third parties.
The service providers we may share your personal information with are the providers of the electronic systems we use to collect and store your personal information; Tessitura Inc and Melbourne International Festival of the Arts (RISING) as part of our ticketing system; banks and financial institutions you use to make payments to us; third party service providers for the purposes of investigating fundraising opportunities; and other service providers we use to help us run aspects of our business efficiently.
5. HOW LONG WE WILL YOU KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will keep your personal information for as long as it is required to provide you with our services and to comply with our legal requirements.
If we no longer require your personal information for any purpose, including legal purposes, we will take reasonable steps to securely destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information in accordance with our obligations under the Act.
6. ACCESSING INFORMATION WE KEEP ABOUT YOU
We will endeavour to meet your request for access to the personal information we hold for you. However, in some circumstances we may decline a request for access. This includes the following circumstances:
● we no longer hold or use the information
● providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others
● the request is deemed frivolous or vexatious
● the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings and would not normally be disclosed as part of those proceedings
● providing access would be unlawful
● providing access would be likely to prejudice the detection, prevention, investigation and prosecution of possible unlawful activity
● the information would reveal commercially sensitive information
We reserve the right to charge you a reasonable fee for access to some types of information. These charges will be limited to the cost of recouping our expenses for providing you with information, such as document retrieval, photocopying, labour and delivery.
7. CHANGING OR DELETING THE INFORMATION
To provide you with the best possible service and to comply with our obligations under the Act it is important the information we hold about you is accurate. We will take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date at the time of collecting, using or disclosing the information.
If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, you should notify us. We will do our best to correct it or delete it, unless we need to keep it for legal reasons.
8. SECURITY
The Wheeler Centre endeavours to take all reasonable steps to keep your personal information secure.
Data collected from the website
The data collected directly and indirectly from you via our website is stored on reputable third-party platforms. These platforms utilise Amazon servers based in the United States and/or in undisclosed locations and accordingly The Wheeler Centre may, in some circumstances, transfer personal information or information collected from individuals to overseas servers operated by third-party organisations.
Data stored in emails and internal documents
The Wheeler Centre uses Microsoft 365 for the storage of email and internal documents. The servers are located in an access-controlled cloud-based server. Once information is stored, only authorised users can access your personal information, and access is only for approved purposes. You can view Microsoft’s privacy policy here.
No liability
The Wheeler Centre is not responsible for any third-party access to your personal information as a result of:
● interception while it is in transit over the internet
● spyware or viruses on the device (such as a computer or phone) from which you access the website
● your failure to adequately protect your usernames or passwords
● any losses, expenses, damages and costs, including legal fees, resulting from such access
Data Breach
If we have reasonable grounds to believe that your personal information may be subject to unauthorised access or disclosure (eligible data breach), we will investigate and assess the breach to determine whether the eligible data breach is likely to result in serious harm to you (notifiable data breach). If a notifiable data breach occurs, then we will notify you and the Australian Information Commissioner as soon as practicable after we become aware of the notifiable data breach in accordance with our obligations under the Act. We will comply in every way with our obligations under Part IIIC – “notification of eligible data breaches” of the Act.
9. PROVIDING INFORMATION ON THIRD PARTY SITES
The website links to some third party sites. These linked sites are not under our control, so we are not responsible for the conduct of any third parties. Before you enter information on those sites, you are responsible for reviewing and considering whether you accept their privacy policy and terms and conditions of use.
10. WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, QUESTION OR COMPLAINT
If you have any further queries relating to this policy, please contact The Wheeler Centre and we will address your concerns as soon as possible.
11. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
The Wheeler Centre’s policies will be reviewed periodically to ensure they align with latest legislation and best-practice and may be revised. The Wheeler Centre reserves the right to change this Policy at any time and notify you by posting an updated version of the policy on the website. Before providing us with personal information, please check this policy on the website for any changes.
This policy was last updated 11 August 2025