A little script to see if the @ABSCensus (http://census.abs.gov.au) is working or not, and when.

is_the_census_working.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo "`date`: Starting to check the Census site"

# loops forever until you Ctrl-C it
while [[ 1 ]]; do
    
    # check the main site, following any redirects
    # dump all responses, we only care if it works (return code = 0) or not
    curl -L -s http://census.abs.gov.au > /dev/null
    
    if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
        echo "`date`: Census site is up; trying a login page"        
        
        # I got this URL from one of the few times I was able to load the main page;
        # I expect that there are others, but this is a decent quick and dirty test
        curl -L -s https://stream20.census.abs.gov.au:8443/eCensusWeb/login.jsp > /dev/null
        
        if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
            echo "`date`: The login page is up, too"
        else
            echo "`date`: The login page is down"
        fi
    else
        echo "`date`: Census site is down"
    fi
    
    # Wait 5 minutes before trying again
    sleep 300
    
done

The whole page is injected by JS! It's a vomitous blob!!