RDA supports Australian bushfire detection technology

The Regional Development Australia Sunshine Coast Inc (RDA), an Australian Government initiative to enhance the development of the Sunshine Coast, commissioned exci, an Australian company based on the Sunshine Coast, to protect the Sunshine Coast community with exci’s early bushfire detection service within the northern part of the Sunshine Coast local government area under the ‘Preparing Australian Communities Local Stream program’.  Emergency services will also have access to exci’s early bushfire detection service.

RDA successfully applied for the grant program “Preparing Australian Communities”, designed to support projects that mitigate or reduce the disaster risk, impact and consequence associated with large-scale natural hazards such as bushfires. 

RDA map Queensland, Australia

The Hon Andrew Wallace MP, the Hon Llew O’Brien MP, the Hon Ted O’Brien MP, and the Chair of SCC’s Financial Services Ltd (Bendigo Community Banks)  provided letters of support to RDA in their application to the ‘Preparing Australia Program’ to assist with the funding of exci’s early bushfire detection service.

exci’s early bushfire detection technology has been proven in large-scale deployments to be more reliable, accurate and faster than any existing alternatives. During the 2021 California season, exci protected over 130 million acres in California with more than 1,000 cameras.

Since the inception of our system, we have successfully detected an astonishing 109,000 fires and counting.

In January 2021, exci hosted a demonstration day at the Noosaville airfield in collaboration with Helitak, McDermott, and QFES where exci successfully demonstrated the capabilities of its proprietary, early bushfire detection technology to the media and all levels of government and other key stakeholders. The Mayor of Noosa, Clare Stewart; the Hon Sandy Bolton MP; the Assistant commissioner John Bolger (QFES); the Hon Ted O’Brien; the Hon Llew O’ Brien; the Hon Mark Ryan, and Chris Boden (Director of the Peregian Digital Hub) watched the first time in Noosa how an AI-based early bushfire detection system detects bushfires within minutes after ignition.

Despite unfavourable weather conditions with heavy wind and rain, exci’s technology could still detect the produced smoke within 1 and 3 minutes.

exci is an Australian company based on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland, protecting proudly over 25 million acres of Australian plantations and forestry and its Sunshine Coast communities from bushfires.

Our Highlights in 2022:

• Winner of the Innovative Global Impact Award
• Invited by the Australian Government and the United Nations to present exci’s early wildfire detection system at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.
• Listed as one of the top 11 innovative Startups applying AI for wildfire detection in 2022
• Amazon Web Services represented exci at the re:Mars event in Las Vegas in June 2022.
• Invited by Alberta Innovates (Canada), in partnership with Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Economic Development, to contribute significantly to Alberta’s wildfire detection.

by Gabrielle Tylor

exci – The Smoke Alarm for the Bush

22 December 2022