I'm not sure that Australia has "progressive" rules about the use of drones by design. More likely it's just that the government hasn't yet got around to putti

I'm not sure that Australia has "progressive" rules about the use of drones by design. More likely it's just that the government hasn't yet got around to putting rules in place. Mind you, the more high-level drone research we have going on here, the more examples there will be to counter attempts to impose crazy rules. Also worth noting is that Australia has a "UAV Outback Challenge" [1], where UAVs compete to carry out a simulated rescue of a tourist lost in the outback. This September the challenge is in Kingaroy, Queensland. (Maybe that's why Google is testing up that way??) Of further interest, there's at least one open source team competing in the UAV challenge [2]. [1] http://www.uavoutbackchallenge.com.au/ http://www.uavoutbackchallenge.com.au/ [2] http://www.canberrauav.com/ http://www.canberrauav.com/ ------ Edit: A bit more detail in the local news: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/google-drones-tested-in-queensland-20140829-109jvb.html http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/google-...