Show HN: I built a private AI inference API in Australia — data sovereignty, Gemma3, live now

Michael Bristow — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 22:20:37 +0000

I'm a systems architect in Adelaide, South Australia.

Australian businesses in healthcare, legal, and finance are sending sensitive client data to American AI systems. US jurisdiction. US servers. Their compliance teams are starting to notice.

So I built an alternative.

NorthStar LLM API runs Gemma3 on dedicated hardware in South Australia, served through Cloudflare's Sydney and Melbourne edge nodes. Your prompts never leave Australia. No per-token billing. Flat monthly subscription from $29 AUD/month.

The API is OpenAI-compatible — existing code works with one endpoint change.

Technical stack:

Gemma3 4b and 12b via Ollama
i9-14900K / 32GB DDR5 / RTX A2000 12GB
Cloudflare Zero Trust tunnel — no open inbound ports
Custom Node.js auth gateway — per-client API key isolation
Full request logging per client

Built for regulated industries where data residency is a legal requirement, not a preference.

GitHub: https://github.com/northstarholdings-au/northstar-llm-api

Trial keys available — 100 free requests, no credit card required. Email northstarholdings.global@gmail.com with subject "API Trial Request".

Happy to discuss architecture decisions or the Australian data sovereignty compliance angle.

DEV Community: Michael Bristow

Show HN: I built a private AI inference API in Australia — data sovereignty, Gemma3, live now