Australia

Last week, Google’s Wing Aviation celebrated one year of drone deliveries in Logan, a local government area in Queensland, Australia. Wing also announced that it would be expanding its operations in Australia after it saw a 500% spike in deliveries during the pandemic.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has released its final report on the Airbus Zephyr drone that fell from the sky due to unstable weather near Wyndham Airport, Western Australia. The drone appears to have experienced a series of uncommanded turns, causing it to break apart mid-flight.

Environmental company Dendra Systems has announced it has raised $10 million to rehabilitate and restore biodiverse ecosystems in Australia and other countries using drone technology.

Airservices Australia has partnered with the Queensland University of Technology to automate the approval for commercial drone flights. The new automated systems plan to speed up the approval process while improving the safety of drone flights.

The New South Wales police are looking for two individuals they believe could help in an investigation relating to a drone that failed to drop drugs into a Sydney jail. The two individuals reportedly purchased the drone used in the failed prison drug drop.

Ecologists have turned to Australian-made drone technology to help track down endangered animals autonomously and efficiently. The drones can reach areas with ease and mark the location of the animals without needing to follow them.

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has hit a new milestone for certified drone operators with 2,000 of them around the country. The milestone was hit by one of the Surf Life Saving Northern Territory’s (SLSNT) newest drone pilots.

The University of South Australia and the Australian Department of Defense has successfully created a drone that can change colors on demand. The new creation will allow drones to be almost hidden in plain sight while on military missions.

The Westpac Little Ripper drone has been flying over Port Macquarie-Hastings in Australia for the past few months, alerting beachgoers of nearby sharks. The shark-spotting drone has sounded the alarm 14 times in four months.

An inquiry into the recent bushfires that swept through much of Eastern Australia is calling for more advanced drones and remote sensors to be used by firefighters. The inquiry also wants firefighters to have access to more data and AI to better understand the fire.

The plan to spy on Australians living in Victoria with drones during the COVID lockdown throughout the second wave was scrapped by the Australian Defense Force but drones were likely still being flown by the Victorian police force.

In a world’s first, DJI’s Matrice 300 has autonomously surveyed two underground Australian mine sites testing 3D LiDAR technology. The new drone technology was being tested by Emesent which has been developing its simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) autonomous flight system Hovermap.

Australian Air Force pilots and contractors are being drafted by the UK‘s Royal Air Force to fly its armed reaper drones above Syria and Iraq due to a shortage of willing pilots. The shortage in pilots has been caused by the stress one undergoes when flying a killing machine.

XAG drones will be helping Aussie farmers to reduce chemical and water usage after a tough three farming seasons hit by bushfires, droughts, and COVID. The drones will be used to map hard to reach locations and drop seeds to restore empty fields.

One of the peskiest birds in the suburbs of Perth, Australia, is the Corella. They rip up irrigation systems, cables, and destroys trees, but can drones scare them off? Perth doctor Jean-Paul Orsini thinks they could be a possible solution to the problem.

CASA has put out a message looking to the community for help to find a drone that was spotted by pilots coming in to land at Sydney airport. The drone appeared to be blue in color and one meter by one meter in size.

The Western Australia (WA) police force have shared its plans to train 60 drone pilots and purchase more than 40 drones over the next 12 months. The police drones will be used to patrol metropolitan and regional areas in emergencies such as land or marine searches.

Drones and wasps are being used in eastern Australia to reduce the amount of chemicals used in farming in order to lessen the damage caused to the Great Barrier Reef. The drones are being used to drop loads of wasps that will then attack the pest insects destroying the crops.

Prison officials in New South Wales, Australia stopped a drone from carrying over $100,000 worth of drugs into a maximum-security prison during a car search on July 27th. The drone was found with a bundle of string and a package containing the drugs.

The Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in Australia fined the operator of the Ravenhall landfill after it was found to have too much exposed waste. The EPA used a drone to inspect the landfill from above in a surprise visit.

Australia-based Emesent has announced it has just achieved autonomy level 2 (AL2) for its Hovermap scanning unit. This allows the unit to be equipped to a drone and autonomously fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and in GPS-denied environments.