The Bloke Behind the Websites
Local. Hands-On. No Nonsense.
I'm Dane, a web designer and developer based right here in Murray Bridge. I build custom websites for small businesses who want a proper online presence without paying agency prices or dealing with corporate runaround.
I taught myself to code the way most good developers actually learn: by picking real projects and building them end to end. Not tutorials, not courses — actual working sites that other people use. A community voting platform with user accounts, submissions, real-time rankings and anti-fraud checks. A handmade goods online store with payments, a lay-by system, and an admin panel. A Murray Bridge business directory with 350+ listings. Every one of them live, every one of them custom PHP and MySQL, every one of them forced me to learn what happens when real users do real things to your code.
That's the background I bring to every build. I'm not a 20-year veteran and I won't pretend to be one — but every site on my portfolio is genuinely mine, from the database schema to the CSS. The same careful thinking that goes into a self-service voting platform goes into a single-page site for a Murray Bridge tradesman. Same PHP, same MySQL, same careful thinking about what happens when things go wrong. Just scaled down for what a small business actually needs.
I write PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS by hand. No templates, no page builders, no WordPress. When you work with me you're talking directly to the person who designs your site, writes the code, sets up the hosting, and keeps it all running. No middlemen, no project managers, no waiting three days for someone to pass your email along to the developer who might look at it on Tuesday.
What you actually get
You talk to me directly. No account managers, no support tickets. You call, text, or email, and I'm the one who answers. I already know your project because I'm the one building it.
I handle everything. Design, code, hosting, domain, SSL, emails, maintenance. All one person. You don't need to coordinate between five different companies or chase four different invoices every month.
Honest pricing. No hourly billing that spirals out of control. You get a clear quote upfront, you know exactly what it costs, and that's what you pay. Most sites are live within 2-3 weeks. If something we originally agreed on changes scope, I tell you before the bill changes, not after.
Your website code is yours. If you ever want to leave, I hand it all over. No proprietary platforms, no hostage situations.
Local to Murray Bridge. I'm not an overseas contractor or a faceless agency in Sydney. I live and work in Murray Bridge. Your neighbours are my neighbours. I know the businesses in town, I know the customers you're trying to reach, and if something needs to be sorted in person we can grab a coffee and sort it in person.
How I work
The short version of what actually happens when you hire me to build a site.
I start by asking about your customers, not your colours.
What do they search for? How do they decide whether to trust you? What's the one thing you'd most like them to do after landing on your site? Those questions matter a hundred times more than whether the header should be grey or charcoal. I'll get to the design decisions, but only after I actually understand what the site needs to do.
I build in public, not in a black box.
You'll see the site progressing on a staging URL as I build it. No three-week silence followed by a single big reveal where it's painful to change anything because the bill is already in. You can comment, course-correct, and change your mind while it's still cheap to change your mind.
I build for the next five years, not the next month.
Page builders and template sites look fine the day they go live. They fall apart a year later when a plugin update conflicts with the theme, or when the builder goes out of business, or when you want something slightly custom that the builder doesn't support. Custom code doesn't have any of those failure modes. The site you get today will still work exactly the same way in five years, on whatever server, with whatever updates.
I'd rather say no than take a job I'll regret.
If you want something I'm not the right person to build, I'll say so. If your budget doesn't match what you want, I'll say that too and either scope it down or point you at someone who does match. I'm not trying to be everyone's web designer. I'm trying to be the right web designer for the people I actually work with.
The short version
Based in
Murray Bridge, South Australia. Serving the Murraylands, Adelaide Hills, and Fleurieu Peninsula. Available remotely for the rest of SA and interstate.
Tech stack
PHP, MySQL, vanilla JavaScript, HTML, CSS. Apache on a VPS I administer myself. No frameworks when a page doesn't need one.
What I build
Business websites, e-commerce stores, database-driven platforms, custom admin panels. If it can be built with code, I can probably build it.
What I don't do
Print design, SEO consulting as a standalone service, social media management, paid ads. I build the website, and I build it properly.
Let's get your business online
Whether you need a simple website or something more complex, I'm happy to have a chat and give you an honest quote.
