Australia's Queensland govt uses drones to monitor oil spills

Australia's Queensland state government will use drones to monitor the condition of the world-heritage Fraser Island site from now on to ensure that its surrounding areas was absolutely free from further oil spills.

Last Wednesday, Queensland state government had ordered a round the clock clean-up on the island after park rangers had discovered oil patties from the size of a ten-cent coin to a five-dollar note on its beachfront.

Queensland state minister for Ports Mark Bailey in a statement said the clean-up, which involved numerous officers, would be wound down on Monday after a week of hard work by shoreline clean-up crews from Gladstone and Brisbane who used rake and shovels to remove the oil patties.

Bailey said the operation will now be taken over by drones in the follow-up weeks to catch any fugitive oil that may have been missed during the initial clean-up.

"This will be aided by the use of drone flights which is a first in Queensland for oil response operations," Bailey said.

Meanwhile, Queensland state minister for Environment Steven Miles said the recent oil spill at Fraser's Hill had not have any impact on any wildlife.

"It is difficult to calculate the total amount of oil recovered as a small amount of sand inevitably goes into the clean-up bags," Miles said.

"The investigation into the source is continuing and we are happy with the work to date aimed at identifying a group of vessels that may be able to assist us in the investigation," he said.

Under Queensland state laws, the maximum fines for a corporation for a discharge offense is 11.78 million Australian dollars (8.97 million U.S. dollars) while it was 17 million Australian dollar (12.95 million U.S. dollars) under Commonwealth laws. Endit