Award honours drone innovation

WHEN Andrew Davies bought a small drone in 2015, he had no idea that would be the start of an award-winning business.

Mr Davies and Taz Drone Solutions recently won the Telstra Best of Business award for Embracing Innovation.

After starting the business in 2017, Mr Davies has expanded it significantly. It now works with mining companies, governments nationally and the agriculture sector on solutions for complex issues from surveying and mapping to pollination and heavy payload drops.

When he bought his first drone, Mr Davies split his time between working in the mining industry and travelling.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to make a life out of it because it was such an opposite to what I was doing at the time,” he said.

While travelling in Europe, Mr Davies met someone using a drone to take videos and being paid for it, which spurred him to consider business opportunities.

After seeing an ad for a commercial drone pilot course, he quit his job, completed the training and then focused on the business. 

“I had the dream of doing something I loved, making videos and travelling. It grew because there wasn’t anyone else doing drones in Tassie.”

He said drone technology was at the time improving with larger machines capable of agricultural applications being built. 

“I was trying to connect experiences I had with the technology that was coming. I had spraying experience and farming experience so I thought I’d be able to make that work.”

Soon he was using drones for 3D mapping for construction projects and brought drone training courses to Tasmania.

One of his big early projects was with Hydro Tasmania on a drone that could spray weeds on dam walls, work previously done by people abseiling.

“That was the first spraying job that I did. It taught me that if helicopters are being used and it costs a lot or isn’t safe, that’s a pretty big opportunity.”

Six years down the track, he said the technology had vastly improved with much bigger payloads, better software and battery capacity making jobs like spraying dam walls easier.

The Taz Drone team of 13 includes a commercial pilot and an aeronautical engineer.

Based at Sheffield, the business is expanding the engineering and manufacturing side, which also includes a 3D printing facility.

“Most people associate drones with military applications, annoying tourists and real estate photography,” he said.

“One of the big challenges for me is trying to demystify the industry and teach people they are reliable and a thing that can solve really big problems.”

As technology improved, he said more farmers were buying drones for work such as spraying on their properties.

Taz Drones has also worked on a drone for fuel-reduction burns and one for installing bird diverters on powerlines.

It is now in the running for national awards which will be announced next month.