Logan Observatory

[Audio] A flying drone, making a high pitched mechanical whining buzz.

[Caption]

AI in the Street: Drone Observatory.

Logan, Queensland. Since 2019, the city of Logan has been host to one of the world's largest commercial drone delivery trials. The trials are run by Wing Aviation, a subsidiary of the multinational giant Alphabet. What do locals have to say about drone delivery in their neighbourhoods?

The Friendly Grocer, Logan

Do you need a hand with the water?

Yes please

Carry this, carry that.

You won't need gym eh?

Yeah, gym's boring.

You've done well.

Thank you.

For an electric thermometer that would be better because that's like a laser So it needs the high powered. But that will get you out of trouble.

Excellent, thank you very much.

No problems, you're welcome. Seeya darl.

How did you get involved with the Wing trials?

Wing got in touch with our landlord to put up a display, Displaying their drone. And I happened to walk past and I'm into drones, I like drones, I've got a drone. And started asking some questions. And they said, “Well would you like to be a part of this where we can deliver your groceries to your customers?”. And I straightaway said, “Yeah, why not?”

And I just thought it was like a bit of a gimmicky thing. I didn't think it was going to be what it ended up being.

It started off from a couple of loaves of bread, a couple of litres of milk per week to van loads of stock going to their depots. And then it got really busy.

We were doing three different drops every day of the week except for Sunday, So it became very, very popular. So it was really good for the customer, it was good for us, and I think it was good for Wing to prove that they could do it.

What did you order?

I think we've got a chocolate ice cream on the way

Yep, fudge brownie ice cream

But if it takes too long in this heat it will probably be fudge sauce.

Col, do you want to grab Kate? I can hear something.

Good girl. What's coming today? Hey? What's coming today? Good girl

There it goes. You wait. Wait. Waiting… good girl.

Right, lets go see what..

Waiting, careful, good girl. Yes. You leave that alone. Thank you.

Get this in before it melts.

So when did you first notice that drone delivery was being trialled here?

We were contacted, I think in the mailbox. No, we saw a big billboard. We were right at the start.

Yeah thought, “Hey, what's that?” Searched. Wing. “Okay, Logan, yay!” Saw it was in Finland, Canberra, and Logan was an early release site. Had a look at the businesses: we used to go to Extraction Coffee for breakfast. So, yeah, Extraction Coffee delivered, sign me up.

So when did you first notice that drone delivery was being trialled here?

I just, yeah, now, to be honest, I didn't know there was. I heard something about drone delivery, but I didn't know that there was drone delivery here in Springwood and Logan.

What are your thoughts about drone delivery in Logan?

I reckon it's a good idea, coz then it saves you going out. Just ring up, they drop it off, done. Easy.

You ever used it before?

No, never tried it. Thinking about it but never tried it.

Why not?

I dunno, I really don't know how to use it I suppose.

Have you ever used drone delivery here?

No, but a couple of my neighbours have.

And what do you feel about that?

It looks pretty hectic. Something new eh? It looks alright eh.

When we first signed up it was touted as being an experiment. Will it work in Logan, will it work at all? Can we not hit it with an aeroplane? Are we going to fly into jets? All that kind of stuff. It made us busier, we

pushed through more stock, like we were ordering more stock and it was profitable,

It was a niche thing, no one did it

I know my parents live down the road In Heritage Park. We’d be over mum and dad’s house and we’d see the drone

come three or four times in half an hour, just delivering stuff and we'd say, oh yeah, that's coming from us, yeah. So it was really good and you'd see drones everywhere, now you don't see them.

But you know the potential, to my God.

We're doing repairs and I've run out of silicon. Drone delivery, silicon from the hardware. Hot chook, don't fancy cooking,

Want a hot chook? They got any left?

Yep, drone delivery, hot chook.

But the guys- the grocery shop that was supplying into Wings- was the one that we used by choice.

Oh, Maz and Baz?

And who is this?

That's mum, that's my brother Baz. Whole family. The whole family.

Sometimes she gets confused, this young one. She looks at him and goes, 'Is that my dad?'

Oh, he looks similar.

So you guys twins? What's happening here?

Nah, I am a year and a half older than him.

If you've watched Twins the movie, Danny DeVito, Arnold.

Oh, you're claiming Arnold? Yeah.

Okay well we've been here 24 years. Thankfully we've got a really good rapport with our customers. That you know we're always here. We're here from six in the morning to eight at night, seven days a week. We just treat our customers like family because we've always lived and worked in the area with them.

Come on in guys.

That's on of the bikies, that's one of the tradies.

I think we'd much prefer to support local business than major chains. It's our philosophy too. But I think a lot of people do that.

He's usually on channel 7, channel 9. When he is chasing people.

Crime stoppers?

Yeah, crime stoppers.

He had a guy come in with an axe. And he threw tuna cans at him. Went viral.

I read about you guys.

Yep, that's the tuna man.

He came in though here. And Baz was doing the bread or something. And he saw this guy with a mask on and that. And he ran down here and grabbed cans of tuna, And the guy chased him this way, and he started pelting him with them. Couldn't throw a ball to save his life. Three shots, three hits. I said, 'why didn't you go the baked beans?' He goes, 'Oh, I just grabbed whatever I could'.

Logan's the biggest drone delivery...

Sweet.

Biggest drone delivery location in the world.

True?

Yeah, hectic.

So Logan, I don't know if you know, Is one of the worlds largest drone delivery trial sites.

Yes, I did read up about that, I've gone 'Go Logan.'

Part of what we are trying to understand is why they chose Logan. I’ve noticed Logan has a bit of a reputation

It certainly had that reputation of, you know, high crime. And also low S.E. Yeah. In my opinion, maybe they are looking for lower class sales with drone.

So, small things, which aren't expensive, will appeal in a low SE environment.

And if you could deliver a couple of cans of beer with that thing, there would be a carpet of drones. The people would do it, I think it wasn't cheap coffee, don't get me wrong, but it was cheap enough that it was pocket change.

Because it's so multicultural and there's so many people living here, and it's huge!

I think we engendered the diversity and I think when you've got a diverse population, you have more flexibility and adaptability.

Oh yeah half my customers are islanders And they are great, we love 'emThat's our New Zealand chips and biscuits And stuff like that. Very multicultural.

It's technical and it's fun and the kids love it.

Now, we had people come to our house just to watch the damn thing.

Certainly from our point of view, We're kind of proud of it!

So what do you think happened there in between?

I think the business model changed and I think they're looking for expansion into greater markets I mean, we never, ever found out a lot. But all of a sudden the smaller businesses

weren't there and Coles appeared and you sort of think, what do I want from Coles? They pulled out virtually overnight. And it was so rapid, with very limited communication. It reeked of a... You've been around business long enough, you know. Okay, the business model's changed. They want to sign up the big guns andtherefore it pushes the small people out.

I think with proving that they can do it and they did that, that's when they sort of said, okay, well, we don't need the small businesses anymore. We don't need the extra outlay, the costs of having the depots and all the staff and all that happening. And I think that's where it sort

of went pear-shaped after that. Once they'd proven it, then they thought, Let's go to Coles, let's go to Doordash, let's go to the big guys and do it that way. So, disappointing, but that's the way it went, yeah.

We used to get sushi, kebabs, all sorts of things. But now it's very, very limited. And very upsetting, cause I loved it.

Did you use it a lot?

I did use it a lot.

But now I don't really use it that much, Because again they charge. For what? Kinda deal... So I don't use a lot of food deliveries anymore because of the expense. We never got a lot of communication from Wing And we just stopped using it. Because there wasn't a product offering that appealed.

It's not right for them to do that.

Definitely not. But that's the only way they can prove to councils and then later state governments and later to the Civil Aviation Board that, yes, we're a drone company, we can make this work, we'll prove to you we can make this work and this is how we're going to do it. So we were just like a stepping stone.

They didn't come and ask the people in Logan if they wanted it to happen.

I'd prefer more infrastructure, more to public transport or more to the upkeep of parks and recreation. More advancement in, you know, in the area, rather than drones. Doesn't benefit, you know the people that are living here. There's a housing crisis, you know what I mean, Look after the people. Don't, that doesn't look after anybody. But if your research does jingle some change somewhere, which I hope it does, then either... Especially if you're looking at, you know, limiting environmental impact, climate impact, optimising, you know, aged care services, delivery of essential goods, you know, meals on wheels via drone. I'm in it.

We were just a guinea pig. Let's test the skies. Let's test and see if this can work. Let's prove to the bean counters back in the US that we can make this work. And they did… And for all of a sudden for you to say, "We don't want to deal with you anymore." We're going to deal with Coles and DoorDash and whoever. It's quite disappointing. Like, they'll say, "look, today we're doing this, tomorrow we're doing that. We're usually the last people to know. That's the way big business works. They gotta make it work for them.

And you guys do what you can in the meantime.

Yeah. Meanwhile... We'll still be around. Yeah.

You ever need a dog leash or something.

We got them, we got everything.

[Caption] Drone Observatory Features:

Maz & Baz

Colleen & Stuart

Michael

Percy

Matai

Anita

Directed by Thao Phan & Jeni Lee

Filmed and editeb by Jeni Lee

Additional camera and drone Sieh Mchawala

Design and additional consultancy Jiyoon Lee