Craig Oliver started flying drones because of a hill.
“We’ve got a farm in Yarra Glen and I was sick of dragging a hose up the hill,” Craig said.
“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 for commercial drones, Craig saw a chance to leave the hill climb behind.
He began his service — Drone Spray — 18 months ago.
“I’m mainly spraying blackberries on hills and doing capeweed,” Craig said.
“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 (20 hectares) of volcanic rocks with serrated tussock among them. The only way they could spray it was on foot with knapsacks.
“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.”
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 said.
“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 they reflect, and weeds tend to stand out under the camera.
“Quite often the weeds are the healthiest plants in the paddock,” Craig said.
“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 said he’d 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.
“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.
“My brother has ag planes and it’s very similar.”
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