A robotic raptor has taken to the skies over Moreton Bay to keep a watchful eye over the region’s $100 million strawberry industry.
As part of an initiative to trial new approaches to bird management, City of Moreton Bay Council has joined forces with research and development corporation Hort Innovation and Canadian technology company AERIUM Analytics to test a drone-enabled remote-control bird designed to deter nuisance birds impacting the City’s strawberry crops.
RoBird mimics natural predatory flight with the aim of creating a long-term deterrent compared to traditional static and noise-based alternatives.
City of Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery said the trials were an example of Council’s forward thinking approach to deliver innovative solutions for the City’s $846 million agricultural industry.
“Tech adoption is a key part of Council’s industry development plan and if proven, this kind of technology offers a scalable, wildlife friendly solution to a persistent industry problem,” Mayor Flannery said.
“The trials aim to demonstrate reduced crop loss, improved yield protection and consistent performance over time, particularly in bird hotspots which are common around berry production.”
The drone is part of a three-year national trial program running until 2028, funded through Hort Innovation’s Frontiers program with co-investment from AERIUM Analytics and contributions from the Australian Government.
It has previously been field tested in Victoria and South Australia.
City of Moreton Bay accounts for about 62 per cent of all strawberry-bearing farm hectares and 64 per cent of the total volume of strawberries grown in South East Queensland – generating $100 million in gross value of production.
One in four punnets of strawberries grown in Australia are grown in City of Moreton Bay, contributing to $420 million in total agricultural crop exports.
Bellmere-based TSL Family Farms owner Laura Wells, whose farm is one half of the Taste’n’See strawberry brand, said the impact of birds like lorikeets and corellas feasting on their tabletop-grown strawberries had cost their business hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It does vary depending on the weather, but when it gets very overcast, we can have hundreds of lorikeets coming in at one time,” she said.
“They’ll settle in, and within a week, we can lose $50,000 to $200,000 worth of crops between the two Taste’n’ See farms.
“They will annihilate crops that are close to trees, and the financial impact is massive. It can be gutwrenching.”
Ms Wells said she was quietly optimistic about RoBird after previously having no luck with other deterrence methods.
“We’re hoping that RoBird will essentially make its presence known here over a long period of time and those nuisance birds will start realising it’s not worth the risk, change their patterns and move on,” she said.
“No-one wants to see hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crops going anywhere but into people’s mouths.”
Ms Wells said agriculture played a “massive role in City of Moreton Bay”.
“We’re a City that feeds a nation so this kind of innovation is very welcome,” she said.
The first field demonstration with RoBird began at Bellmere in May with a host of local strawberry growers supported by Berries Australia, and industry representatives attending.
