No email gate, no sign-up. Move the sliders, get a number. The model behind it uses the same benchmarks Australian contract drone operators actually charge — and we show you the whole calculation, not just the total.
Most contractors won't show you this. We will, because a price you can sanity-check yourself is a price you'll trust.
The benchmark Australian contract drone operators work to is roughly $1.80 per litre-per-hectare applied. Spray 20 L/ha and you're near $36/ha; 40 L/ha and you're near $72/ha. It sounds crude, but it tracks the real driver of cost — how many times the aircraft has to come back and refill.
Orchards and vines carry a higher multiplier because the water rates are higher and the flying is slower and closer to obstacles.
Hectares or acres, your call. The estimator will show the area and the rate either way — flick the toggle. Water and spread rates stay per hectare whichever you pick, because that's how every registered chemical label in Australia is written, and we're not about to start converting label rates for you.
Charging per hectare on a gully full of blackberry punishes whoever guesses wrong. Spot spraying and steep or timbered country runs at $275–$325 per hour with a two hour minimum, billed on actual flying and setup time.
You get the flight log, so the hours on the invoice are the hours in the air.
Open flat country flies fastest. Undulating ground adds around 12%, and steep, timbered or obstacle-heavy country adds around 28% — slower flight lines, more repositioning, more care around hazards.
We'd rather show you the loading than bury it in a padded per-hectare rate.
We're based in Toowoomba, Queensland. Anything within 100 km of town carries no travel charge at all. Past that it's a $150 setup plus $1.45 a kilometre for the run out and back — so 200 km works out at $440, and 400 km at $1,020. Type your postcode into the estimator and it does the sum for you.
The distance is worked off your postcode, which is close but not exact — the written quote uses real road kilometres. Past about 600 km it becomes a multi-day trip and we price the travel with you instead.
Minimum job charge is $850 ex GST. That covers getting the trailer to you, setting up and flying, and it's what applies to most jobs under 15–20 ha.
30 × 1.8 = $54/ha → $9,720. Flat country, and Dalby sits inside the free radius. Estimate: $9,720 ex GST — about 1.5–2 days flying.
6 hours at $300 = $1,800, plus 28% steep-country loading = $2,304, plus $380 mobilisation (80 km past the free radius, out and back). Estimate: $2,684 ex GST.
60 × 2.4 = $144/ha → $1,728, plus 12% undulating loading = $1,935. Above the minimum. Estimate: $1,935 ex GST.