EPA’s dump-spotting drones hard at work

EPA Victoria’s pollution-seeking aerial drones had a big year in 2025/26, with more flights, more pilots and new LIDAR technology that can spot illegal waste dumping through dense vegetation.

The new laser-based technology leaves offenders with fewer places to hide the mess when EPA sets out to find illegal stockpiles and map the dump sites for detailed evidence to use in court.

EPA’s Executive Director Operations, Rachel Gualano, says the drones also make routine inspections faster and more effective.

“EPA’s pilots conducted more than 600 flights for 2025/26, and we’ve trained more of our field staff to use this technology, bringing the number of qualified drone pilots to 40,” Ms Gualano said.

“They worked across the state, completing dump site surveys, thermal scans, and airborne gas sampling, and taking on jobs that would otherwise be time consuming or hazardous,” she said.

EPA’s drones can inspect a large landfill site in minutes, give investigators an aerial view of an industrial fire or an assessment of the hazardous debris it leaves behind, and also complete gas sampling and infrared detection of hotspots.

In mid-2024, EPA used drones to survey a rural site in Gippsland where 370,000 litres of expired hand sanitizer had been stockpiled without a licence. EPA ordered the company responsible to clean up the site and in September 2025 a court imposed a fine and costs totalling $14,000.

An EPA drone survey over Port Phillip Bay gathered evidence that led to a $280,000 Supreme Court penalty for a Moorabbin chemical manufacturer this year, over a 28,000 litre spill that left an oily mess on Elwood and St Kilda beaches in 2023.

More recently, the drones were called in to measure the damage after the Pacific Metals Group fire at Laverton North, and the ACB fire at Derrimut, two major fires that triggered official investigations.

They also took to the air to help calculate the volume of chicken manure that set off a wave of odour reports in the Geelong area in early April, and they surveyed illegal dumping sites at Wildwood, Kilmore, Sunbury and Diamond Creek.

EPA’s drones are still at work, flying over suspected dumping sites, surveying larger sites that require ongoing regulation to bring them into compliance, or gathering evidence for upcoming court cases.

EPA’s drones add to the intelligence gathering and enforcement capacity of the Illegal Waste Dumping Taskforce, in which EPA works with fellow regulators, councils and land managers to identify dumping hotspots and catch those responsible.

There’s more information about the Taskforce at epa.vic.gov.au/illegal-waste-dumping-taskforce(opens in a new window) and if you see illegal dumping or know anything about it, report it to the EPA on 1300 372 842.