News, deep dives, and analysis — every Australia story, newest first.
Two hikers who went missing off the Dead Horse Gap track in Kosciuszko National Park were located within five hours after Fire and Rescue NSW deployed a drone team using AI-assisted detection software. The rescue is the agency's first operational AI find, and it offers a rare look at how human pilots and low-threshold machine vision actually work together in the field.
Emesent has raised $17 million (A$25 million) in new funding to expand manufacturing at its Wacol, Queensland facility and build out two software platforms: Cortex AI, its onboard autonomy engine for GPS-denied flight, and Aura, its cloud platform for processing and visualizing 3D data. The round pairs a $7 million (A$10 million) venture debt facility…
Seattle is running a drone scoreboard for the six 2026 FIFA World Cup matches it hosts, with a 400-drone Sky Elements show flying after dark over Seattle Center to project the final score and both flags alongside the Space Needle. The first show ran Monday, June 15 after the Belgium-Egypt match, and the program continues…
A shark attack that critically injured a 35-year-old woman at Sydney’s Coogee Beach on Saturday has pushed Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority to reconsider the drone restrictions that limit shark-spotting flights at one of the city’s most exposed beaches. The restrictions exist because Coogee sits under the flight path of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, which…
Vivid Sydney just pulled the plug on every drone show left in its lineup. The trigger came Monday night, when roughly 89 drones dropped out of the sky during the festival’s Star-Bound performance at Cockle Bay. Eighty-three of them hit the water of Darling Harbour, six more came down on the boardwalk, and nobody was…
TU Delft's Bee-Nav drone flies home from 600 meters without GPS, using a honeybee-inspired neural memory of just 42 kilobytes. Here's how it works.
HOVERAir AQUA, the waterproof self-flying camera, launches globally today in 50+ countries. US buyers excluded due to the December 2025 FCC drone ban.
Australian aerospace engineer Benjamin Biggs pushed his Blackbird speed drone to 730 km/h (454 mph) on a downwind run and 640 km/h (398 mph) flying back into the wind, for a two-direction average of 685 km/h (426 mph). The average clears the 657.59 km/h (408.6 mph) figure that holds the official Guinness World Record for…
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