WEST PERTH, Western Australia, 24 June 2026. Xplorate Pacific Pty Ltd, a leader in remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and automated aerial intelligence, has received a milestone beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). The near-three-year authorisation establishes an unprecedented, continuous aerial monitoring framework over one of Australia’s most critical energy corridors.
Effective immediately through 31 March 2029, the approval (CASA instrument CASA.BVLOS.0250) clears Xplorate Pacific to operate its flagship SwissDrones SDO 50 V3 unmanned helicopter around the clock. Operations will span non-controlled airspace up to 500 feet (152.4 metres) above ground level under the company’s Remote Operator’s Certificate (CASA.ReOC.7640).
The massive authorised envelope covers an active grid roughly 560 kilometres north–south by 740 kilometres east–west, straddling the South Australia–Queensland border.
Previously constrained to localised, line-of-sight sorties, this regulatory breakthrough transforms Xplorate Pacific’s regional footprint into a permanent, infrastructure-wide data utility.
“This is a genuine turning point for industrial asset management in Australia,” said Ronnie Fahy, Chief Executive Officer of Xplorate Pacific. “A defensible, long-term regulatory position allows us to move away from ad-hoc operations. We are giving our clients a standing, basin-scale utility that flies heavy missions day or night, building real, compounding asset value over multiple years.”
The Cooper Basin’s vast gathering network, encompassing thousands of kilometres of flowlines, hundreds of well sites, and critical processing nodes, has historically relied on slow, expensive, and high-risk manual ground patrols or manned aviation.
By standardising on the SwissDrones SDO 50 long-range mini helicopter platform, Xplorate Pacific replaces high-HSE-exposure methods with predictable, programmatic inspection cycles. The newly unlocked night-flying mandate allows operators to request round-the-clock emergency response, rapid leak detection, and wildfire intelligence.
Xplorate Pacific moves beyond simple anomaly detection. Every flight we launch instantly pushes vital data through open APIs to update your digital twins, quantify methane emissions, and track asset changes.
Xplorate Pacific Pty Ltd is an Australian infrastructure intelligence company headquartered in West Perth, Western Australia. Operating a specialised fleet of heavy-payload, long-range remotely piloted aircraft, Xplorate Pacific transforms physical assets into actionable digital insights. The company provides continuous pipeline surveillance, emissions monitoring, grid inspection, and critical asset protection across the continent.