Shire of Esperance, Western Australia, originally established a drone program around two years ago, which has grown significantly to become an essential part of normal work processes throughout the organisation.
The need for a drone program arose when some work required aerial photographs to be taken and a quote supplied from the contractor was three times the total cost of purchasing a commercial drone outright.
Council therefore decided to acquire its own DJI Phantom 4 Pro and have an employee learn the ropes to complete the task in-house.
The success of that initial job has driven the program to what it is today, resulting in drones being used more frequently and for a wider variety of tasks.
In August, last year a group of ten employees from departments across the organisation spent a week earning their Remote Pilot’s License.
With the increase in skills and qualifications the Shire’s drone fleet has also since increased and now consists of a DJI Phantom 4 Pro V1, DJI Mavic Enterprise and DJI M300 with a H20T camera.
Drones have become an integral part of many work processes in the Shire, for example, as well as increasing job efficiency, drone use in structural assessments increases safety by removing the need for employees to climb ladders.
Council has high hopes for the future of their drone program, looking to expand the capability and functionality of the drone fleet with LiDAR, enhanced orthomosaics, digital terrain mapping and thermal mapping of structural and country fires and 3D mapping on demand.
