Craig Oliver started flying drones because of a hill.
While that doesn’t present any real challenges along the Murray, from Mildura upstream, it is still good news for farmers with local problems needing innovative solutions.
Some, for example, caused by unexpectedly high rainfalls for several months, making its dicey for heavy machinery to access every paddock.
“We’ve got a farm in Yarra Glen and I was sick of dragging a hose up the hill,” Craig explains the epiphany that is taking him, and his clients, to new heights in agriculture.
“I hated spraying that hill with a passion.”
Having flown radio-controlled aircraft since he was a kid, it wasn’t an intimidating leap for Craig to start looking at commercial drones capable of spraying weeds on the steep slopes of Victoria’s Yarra Valley.
As civil aviation laws in Australia started to expand to accommodate commercial drones, Craig saw a chance to leave the hill climb behind.
And launched his service — Drone Spray — 18 months ago.
“I have started out spraying blackberries on hills and doing capeweed,” Craig says.
“Come blackberry season, I have two months of work booked.”
Aside from the usual weeds in hard-to-reach spots, Craig is also seeing his share of creative jobs coming in.
“There was a guy who had 50 acres of volcanic rocks with serrated tussock among them. The only way they could spray it was on foot with knapsacks,” he says.
“It took the drone a day to spray and he said it would’ve taken two workers over a week to do the same job.
“Basically if it’s too rough that you can’t drive it, or too wet to put a tractor on, it’s perfect for a drone.”
Now he is also getting calls from people who want his agri air force to go where no machines currently can – and not just for spraying. As all generals know, intelligence is worth its weight in gold.
Drone Spray runs three different drones, all specialised for certain jobs.
“I’ve got the main spray drone and then I have a Phantom 4 Multispectral drone,” Craig says.
“It does NDVI mapping and allows you to see the health of the crop and where the weeds are.
“It has a six-lens camera, and each lens shoots a different colour, then you put that into a computer. It basically works on reflective light.”
The healthier a plant is, the more light it will reflect, and weeds tend to stand out under the camera.
“Quite often the weeds are the healthiest plants in the paddock,” Craig says.
“The main reason you use multispectral is to tell where the crop is growing healthier.
“There was a place I did recently where there was one crook sprinkler not putting fertiliser on. That showed up to the drone.”
The third drone is a 2-D and 3-D mapping drone, which can recreate a hillside in three dimensions so the spray drone can fly in the area automatically and not crash itself.
Craig says he’s also had a lot of interest since attending the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo in April.
“Farmers are switched on, they know what the drones can do and watch YouTube videos about them,” he says.
“A lot of people have used helicopters before but the beauty of the drone is I can get into tighter spots.
“This technology has been around for a while but previously CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) wouldn’t let something over 23kg up high.”
Craig needs to have the drone equivalent of a truck licence to pilot his machines, but he says it makes sense for safety.
