Drone delivers medical supplies to flood hit residents

At one stage, more than 50,000 people in a dozen towns were cut off from food, medicine and electricity as the wild weather lashed the state.

The crew of volunteers flew the supplies across the Manning River to Harrington on Friday night after receiving an urgent request.

The SES said conditions were declared too dangerous for boats to make the crossing, and all helicopters were assigned to other tasks.

“We didn’t have much visuals on the Harrington side, being night, so I used it in infrared mode and aerial mapping,” pilot Gabe Mihalas said.

“We had a few locals watching from further up the road and cheered us as the drop happened, so it feels really good to know we’ve made a positive impact in such a tough time for this community.”

“It’s a great feeling to be a part of this, and there are many different people involved, but it was definitely a nice feeling to be out there on the frontline doing the actual delivery.”

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NSW has been trailing drone delivery as part of a program launched during the recent Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The state currently employs 12 pilots who operate seven drones but wants to expand the initiative.

Local palliative care nurse Tiffany Willis, who was also isolated, worked with SES volunteers to receive the delivery.

“My boss approached me and said they had spoken to the patients, and they were working through ways to help them given their isolation,” she said.

“I spoke directly with the NSW SES throughout and worked with them to find an appropriate location. The communication was really great and seamless.”

Australia has increasingly been experimenting with using drones for innovative uses such as delivering medicine, spotting sharks or aiding swimmers who find themselves in trouble at sea.

The news also comes after Google Wing’s commercial drone delivery service last year expanded into Melbourne.

Around 250,000 residents in the city’s eastern suburbs can now order smaller goods from the Eastland Shopping Centre via the DoorDash app.

Wing launched commercially in 2019 in Australia and allows for the delivery of packages weighing less than 1.5kg, such as coffees and sandwiches.

It’s already making hundreds of thousands of deliveries each year from shopping mall rooftops and supermarket car parks in its original Queensland bases of Ipswich, Logan and the Gold Coast.