A new Flight Test Range Command Centre has officially opened at Latrobe Regional Airport, giving developers a dedicated home for testing, manufacturing and integrating drones and other emerging aviation technology in the Latrobe Valley. The opening was held the week before it was reported on 22 September, with guests treated to a live drone demonstration, its vision fed straight back into the new command centre.
The project was jointly funded, with $205,000 from the Victorian Government and $107,000 from Latrobe City Council, and it now forms part of the wider Latrobe Aerospace Technology Precinct. Delivery partner Yarra Drones, appointed by Latrobe City Council back in May to design and establish the facility, chose the site partly because it sits only an hour and a half from Melbourne, with established supply chains and low population density inside the proposed testing corridor, exactly the conditions needed for the kind of beyond visual line of sight testing this centre is built to support.
Founder and Chief Remote Pilot Ravi Murty says the centre brings together remote operations, digital airspace management and flight-testing capability in one real-world environment, and that once scaled to full operational capacity, it will be the first facility of its kind anywhere in Australia. Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing, Latrobe City Mayor Sharon Gibson, Cr Darren Howe and Latrobe City Chief Executive Steve Piasente all attended the opening, alongside guests who saw first-hand how the technology could support agriculture, infrastructure inspections, and search and rescue, including sending a drone into terrain no operator could safely reach to locate someone in distress.
The command centre is designed to support the full lifecycle of flight testing, from early trials through to commercial operations, with real-time tracking and airspace awareness built in from the start. It’s anchored by the LaunchPad building, a two-storey, 1,225 square metre modular facility designed to be reconfigured as the advanced air mobility sector matures around it, and it isn’t operating in isolation. Swinburne University’s Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub has come on board as the precinct’s first foundation member, working on next-generation aerostructures for civil aviation, eVTOL, uncrewed systems and advanced air mobility more broadly.
It’s a genuinely useful case study in how regional airports are finding new roles for themselves well beyond scheduled passenger services. Latrobe Regional Airport is positioning itself at the leading edge of a technology shift the whole industry is watching closely, and the infrastructure being built there now will likely shape how uncrewed aviation gets tested and certified in Australia for years to come.
For businesses already operating in and around Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley, that kind of regional investment is a reminder of how much activity now sits well beyond the major capital city airports. Adagold Aviation’s charter flight services already connect corporate and industry travellers into regional Victoria, wherever the work happens to be.
