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The rescue took place as life savers at Lennox
Head, a beach popular with surfers south of the city of
Brisbane, were preparing for a training session on using drones
to pull swimmers to safety.
The practice turned into a real rescue when someone noticed that
two men swimming outside safety flags were in trouble in a
three-meter (10-foot) swell, the government said in a statement.
Lifeguards launched the drone, steered it towards the swimmers
and dropped a "rescue pod" into the water, where it expanded so
the swimmers could grab it and swim to shore.
"Never before has a drone fitted with a flotation device been
used to rescue swimmers like this," said John Barilaro, the
deputy premier of New South Wales state.
The rescue took just 70 seconds. The two swimmers were exhausted
but unharmed.
Barilaro said the state government had invested A$430,000
($343,000) in a trial of drone technology in December.
Australia, most of whose 24 million live on the coast, had 291
drownings in the year to June 30, a small increase over the
previous year but a decline on a per capita basis, according to
the Royal Life Saving Society.
Forty people have drowned in the 2017/18 summer, down from 69 at
the same time last year, the group said.
(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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