$14.5m Cloncurry drone testing facility falls into disuse, costing taxpayers

A $14.5m drone testing facility in Outback Queensland appears to have fallen into disuse, with fears it has become another white elephant.

The Queensland government’s $14.5m international aerial-drone-testing facility appears dormant, prompting fears it has become another costly white elephant and a continuing drain on the public purse.

I’m told the only visitors to the Cloncurry Unmanned Aerial Systems Flight Test Range, 770km west of Townsville, are two maintenance workers who visit “every month or two” to test the surveillance radar system.

As part of an agreement with the Cloncurry council, the operators occasionally take local schoolchildren on guided tours of the empty facility that was previously hailed by three Labor ministers as the start of a lucrative new aeronautical industry.

The facility adjoins Cloncurry Airport, which is owned by the council.

The so-called flight test range is housed in a spacious airconditioned complex with offices, a hangar and workshops, storage spaces, a sophisticated radar and communications hub, and an amenities and service facility.

Ministers were alerted to the lack of activity last month when a group of MPs from the parliamentary state development committee chaired by Member for Murrumba Chris Whiting asked to inspect it.

The MPs were told by the Department of State Development not to bother; there was nothing to see.

The facility is in the electorate of Traeger held by Robbie Katter for Katter’s Australian Party, who is a member of the committee.

A source familiar with the facility said it was struggling because the Queensland Government had failed to attract the international firms it had hoped would fund the centre. Taxpayers now face a monthly six-figure fee to maintain it, he said.

Then state development minister Cameron Dick (right) announces the facility with Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell (centre) and Boeing senior manager (experimentation) Rob Hargrave

A spokeswoman for Deputy Premier and State Development Minister Steven Miles would not reveal the amount, citing saying it was commercial-in-confidence.

However his spokesman said the facility was neither “dormant nor abandoned”.

The centre showed early promise and was used to test a solar-powered glider, a small, unmanned jet and balloons.

However the projects were relatively minor and quickly petered out, said a source.

Aerospace giant Boeing Defence Australia was the first to use the facility in November 2020 to trial “brain-on-board technology” involving five small unmanned test aircraft.

However, a significant project by Boeing to test its MQ-28 Ghost Bat unmanned combat vehicle, known as Loyal Wingman, did not go ahead at Cloncurry.

The project was switched to a testing facility at the RAAF Woomera base in South Australia.

There was speculation the airstrip at Cloncurry was simply not long enough for the 11.7m long Loyal Wingman, which operates with on-board artificial intelligence and has a range of 2000 nautical miles.

Other firms wanting to test high- altitude balloons and unmanned aerial vehicles were said to be prevented from doing so by the federal Civil Aviation Safety Authority because they would have entered controlled airspace over Cloncurry, a busy corridor for domestic and international flights.

When Miles opened the Cloncurry facility in 2020, he said the flight test range “was a key part of the government’s strategy to support a diverse economy and bring high-technology industries”. He gushed over Boeing’s involvement.

“To enable instrument testing of this calibre right here in Queensland is something that makes us extremely proud,” he said.

Then state development minister Cameron Dick (front) announces the facility with Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell (left) and Boeing senior manager (experimentation) Rob Hargrave

In a statement in 2019 the then minister for state development Cameron Dick announced QinetiQ (Australia) Pty Ltd had been appointed to design and construct an initial stage of a flight test range to provide a minimum viable capability.

QinetiQ is a multinational defence technology group specialising in robotics, cyber and high-energy laser weapons, and drones. Its main customers are the UK, US and Australian governments.

QinetiQ’s “operations and management contract” to run the Cloncurry facility was recently extended, according to a briefing note from the Department of State Development.

Initially, Dick said the facility would create 65 jobs.

A report at the time said the range would provide “flight test and demonstrations ranging from simple test manoeuvres and payload testing through to full trials requiring complex mission control support”.

I’m told there have been three minor tests at the facility in the past three years.

One was by a drone developer RevAero from Forest Lake in Brisbane. It received government funding to test drones that might be used to deliver cargo in the Whitsunday region.

Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell said he had urged the Albanese government to encourage more support for the facility.

“Business has been slow,” he said.

“All the international companies that were lined up didn’t come.

“Covid wiped all that out.”

Boeing confirmed the Loyal Wingman project was not undertaken at Cloncurry but at Woomera.

The company declined to comment further.

“In general, we don’t publish our test activities or locations in advance, however we intend to continue to use facilities throughout Queensland where their capabilities align with our activity requirements,” a spokeswoman said.

In a boost for the entrepreneurial Wagner family, Boeing reportedly plans to assemble its Loyal Wingman drones at Wellcamp near Toowoomba at a new facility to be known as the Wellcamp Aerospace and Defence Precinct.