00:03It's harvest time at Western Bury, about 100 kilometres north of Perth.
00:10This year we'll do about 1,450 tonnes across all of our netted structures and packed out,
00:17we'll pack out 96% of that. At full production in two years time off this 120 hectares,
00:22we should hit three and a half thousand tonnes.
00:23That's a lot of blueberries.
00:24It's a lot of blueberries.
00:25More than 200 people work to pick, process and pack blueberries.
00:31Most are working holiday makers, a temporary but essential labour force.
00:37But there's a new fleet of autonomous workers getting jobs done on the farm.
00:43Currently we're using foliar spraying, weed control, we're looking at autonomous mowing,
00:50flower counts and I guess crop health detection systems, so cameras that look at the crop, check for poor irrigation.
01:03We strive to do as much with the technological innovation within the farming operations and packing operations.
01:10Battery powered machines like this one, hauling fruit from the field to the pack house, rely on precise GPS mapping
01:18to set a path and they navigate using sensors and cameras.
01:22What might have been a fanciful dream a few years ago, now a reality with a seemingly limitless future.
01:30Utilising a lot of tech, but it is such a growth area in the world essentially.
01:36We're seeing these humanoid robots everywhere now.
01:39Can you see them picking and pruning your plants one day?
01:43Yeah, look, we have this dream that the autonomous robot, the humanoid robots will do our pruning.
01:50And if we can teach an AI model where to prune and how to prune, and if that can teach
01:56a humanoid robot where to prune and how to prune,
01:58you basically get rid of any damage to your drip lines, your trellising, your pruning equipment, your plants, and it
02:05becomes a very precise farming technique.
02:07The pruning basically sets how much fruit we're going to pick next year.
02:13Westonberry is also pioneering machine harvesting of blueberries in Australia.
02:18You're nearing the peak of your blueberry season. How important is this harvester?
02:23So you can see now it's doing about four to five kilos every 15, 20 seconds.
02:28It depends on the speed that we go, but the importance is how many people that replaces.
