Breaking Barriers: Transforming health and logistics with drones in remote Australia

By Scott Wheeler, Head of APAC, Skyports Drone Services.

Australia, with its vast landscapes, sprawling coastlines, and widely dispersed population, presents a unique set of challenges, and opportunities, for drones or Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS). Across healthcare, infrastructure, environmental management, and defence, drones are poised to transform how Australia responds to its geographical realities and natural disasters. The coming decade offers a pivotal moment to harness this technology not just for efficiency, but for saving lives, improving national resilience and supporting the future economy.

RPAS are no longer just “emerging technologies,” they have become critical tools ready to deliver real benefits today. They are no longer limited to e-commerce or recreational applications. Increasingly, they are being deployed for life-saving missions, including medical supply delivery, emergency response and disaster relief.

A report by Airservices Australia, Sizing the Future Drone Industry, highlights the transformative potential of RPAS, estimating that drones could deliver $14.5 billion in economic value to Australia by 2040. Deloitte’s Economic Benefit Analysis of Drones to Australia further reinforces this, projecting significant cost savings and productivity gains, particularly in agriculture, mining, and healthcare.

Given Australia’s size and terrain, the opportunities are varied and significant, providing strong benefits for:

• Remote and rural health
• Natural disasters
• Infrastructure inspections and maintenance
• Environmental monitoring and water management
• Defence and security
• Innovation and testing

Health and natural disasters

Australia’s immense landmass is sparsely populated outside the eastern seaboard. Around 7 million people (28% of the Australian population) live in rural and remote communities. Many communities in rural and remote Australia face profound barriers to accessing timely medical care, including long travel times, poor road infrastructure, and limited local healthcare services. For Indigenous and remote communities especially, health inequities are alarming, with some remote areas having life expectancies of up to 13 years lower than cities.

RPAS offer a critical solution. Medical RPAS delivery can significantly decrease vast distances, helping to transport urgent medicines, blood supplies, vaccines, and diagnostic samples in a fraction of the time traditional transport requires. Trials and operational programs have already shown how RPAS can support pathology testing, urgent pharmaceutical delivery, and even transport emergency equipment like defibrillators to isolated communities.

As natural disasters such as bushfires, floods, and cyclones increase in intensity and frequency due to climate change, RPAS also offer rapid, resilient alternatives to ground transport, often when traditional roads are cut or airstrips are damaged. With further investment in drone logistics, Australia can develop a robust emergency response system that ensures no community is left stranded when disaster strikes

Beyond delivery, RPAS have already proven vital for disaster response and disaster monitoring. In the 2022 and 2024 floods in New South Wales and Queensland, RPAS provided real-time imagery to emergency operations centres, supporting faster evacuations, identifying trapped individuals, and assessing infrastructure damage. Post-disaster, RPAS can inspect roads, bridges, and buildings safely and quickly, reducing the risks faced by emergency workers.

Infrastructure inspections and maintenance in the remote Outback

Australia’s vast infrastructure, from highways stretching hundreds of kilometres between towns to remote airstrips and water pipelines, is notoriously difficult and expensive to maintain. RPAS are already revolutionising infrastructure inspections. High-resolution imaging, LiDAR, and thermal sensing allow for detailed bridge, rail line, and road inspections without costly and dangerous manual inspections.

Similarly, power-line inspections in remote areas are a prime use case. Energy providers are increasingly turning to RPAS to inspect transmission lines that run across harsh and inaccessible terrain. RPAS can spot corrosion, vegetation encroachment, and damage before these issues cause outages or fires, enhancing the resilience of Australia’s critical energy grid.

Environmental monitoring and water management

Australia’s fragile ecosystems and its precious water resources require constant monitoring. Water testing and monitoring via RPAS provides a safer, more cost-effective way to collect samples and conduct visual inspections of dams, catchment areas, rivers, and wetlands. RPAS-mounted sensors can detect algal blooms, pollutants, and ecosystem changes without needing expensive boat operations or dangerous manual sampling.

On the coast, RPAS are increasingly supporting maritime surveillance, helping fisheries authorities monitor illegal fishing, protecting marine parks, and assisting in search and rescue missions and beach shark patrols. With a coastline stretching over 34,000 kilometres, Australia’s need for cost-effective and constant maritime domain awareness cannot be overstated.

Defence and security applications

Australia’s defence forces have long recognised the potential of RPAS, deploying them in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles across domestic and international operations. With growing regional security concerns and vast borders to protect, RPAS are a critical part of Australia’s defence strategy.

Uncrewed systems are supporting border patrols, monitoring remote northern territories, and providing rapid-response capabilities during natural disasters and humanitarian crises. As RPAS technology matures, the Australian Defence Force is increasingly interested in larger, longer-range RPAS capable of operating in contested environments, a shift that mirrors Australia’s broader strategic posture.

Innovation: a great testing ground for Large RPAS (>150 kgs)

Perhaps one of Australia’s greatest underutilised advantages is its sheer amount of benign, low-population areas and airspace. Approximately 75% of Australia is considered very remote. This makes the country one of the world’s most attractive testing grounds for new large RPAS technologies.

Facilities like the Queensland Flight Test Range (QFTR) offer controlled environments for the testing of next-generation RPAS and uncrewed cargo aircraft. As larger RPAS such as the Pyka Pelican Cargo and other middle-mile autonomous aircraft enter commercial service, Australia is well-placed to host trials, support certification pathways, and attract international investment.

The future for Redbird Aero and Skyports

Uncrewed aircraft are proven to save lives and improve patient outcomes. The ability for RPAS to enhance healthcare accessibility, improve emergency response times, reduce costs, and support remote and rural communities makes them a valuable asset in modern healthcare and humanitarian aid.

Redbird Aero and Skyports are committed to delivering critical services across Australia. Together, we are uniquely positioned to lead the next generation of health logistics through large cargo RPAS operations, particularly in rural and remote regions where traditional supply chains struggle.

By leveraging Redbird’s strong client relationships with healthcare providers and Skyports’ previous global expertise in uncrewed aircraft systems, the partnership can rapidly expand medical deliveries, pathology logistics, and pharmaceutical resupply. This will be transformative for health outcomes for isolated communities in Australia by providing a safer, faster, and more resilient logistics alternative.

Get in touch if you’d like to find out more, or see how we can bring your project to life in Australia.