Working across multiple sites, head operator John Santos and the operations team covered a combined 60 hectares in just two days, seeding rough terrain that would have been slow, difficult and dangerous to tackle any other way.
We firmly believe that for sites like this, doing the job from the air is simply more effective. Mine rehabilitation areas often come with little to no vehicle access and steep, unstable slopes – exactly the conditions that bring conventional ground-based spreading to a standstill.
Rather than sending crews or heavy machinery down into hazardous ground, the drone distributes seed from above. This keeps operators in a safer position, reduces ground disturbance on recovering land, and lets the team move between separated work sites without machinery having to traverse the terrain at all.
A big part of what makes this work is the drones’ autonomous operation. Accurate geofencing lets the aircraft follow the designated routes and therefore lay down seed with a very consistent coverage across an irregular landscape. That precision is exactly why the results were so impressive.
As the client put it, “Your work from last year has been among the best we have seen. There were no striping issues, and the areas covered showed 100 per cent regrowth with no patchy spots.”
Achieving that level of uniformity is nearly impossible by hand or with conventional machinery on terrain like this; it’s the direct result of the drone’s ability to follow a precisely planned autonomous flight path.
Completing 60 hectares in two days also demonstrates how high-capacity drone technology can accelerate the application stage of a rehabilitation program.
Faster seeding means teams can make the most of the right weather and seeding windows, lean less on large ground crews, and keep heavy vehicles off ground that’s still recovering.
The native seed mix itself is only one part of a broader restoration process that also depends on site preparation, rainfall, soil conditions and ongoing monitoring. However, fast, uniform seed distribution gives regrowth a strong foundation to build on.
Agricultural drones were first developed to boost farm productivity, but their aerial access, autonomous operation, high-capacity payloads and precise spreading make them just as capable on complex mine closure and land rehabilitation work.
The Liddell project is proof that even when difficult terrain stops conventional machinery in its tracks, XAG Australia can keep rehabilitation moving forward.
