NEWS RELEASE 29 May, 2025
Combination of GPS and drone tech ensures top turf at world class sports park
Crestmead, Queensland (29 May, 2025) — Heath Taylor started his apprenticeship at Blacktown Olympic Park in 2003, just after the glory days of the Sydney Olympics, when the purpose-built stadium in western Sydney hosted baseball fixtures and the softball gold medal match.
From his first days as a turf and green keeping apprentice, Heath 'grew' with the complex over the next 22 years, as the Olympic Park evolved into the world class Blacktown International Sports Park (BISP).
It's now a multi-sports venue with two cricket grounds and an AFL pitch, an athletics track and field, three baseball diamonds, two soccer fields and four softball diamonds, as well as administration, health and teaching centres, and park land.
For the past three years Heath has been Senior Supervisor, working with a team of 21 staff to manage the maintenance, preparation and renovation of 54 hectares of sports turf and landscapes across the Park.
Owned by Blacktown City Council, BISP services Sydney AFL and Cricket NSW, the Western Sydney Wanderers football club, and Blacktown & Districts Soccer Football Association (BDSFA). Its Blacktown Exercise Sports & Technology hub (BEST) offers GP and physiotherapy services, and features teaching facilities for sports science and medical training offered by the Australian Catholic University.
Currently under construction is the Blacktown Disability Sports Centre, with two full-field indoor courts, offices and amenities, which is being built in consultation with Disability Sport Australia.
Heath's focus is on keeping the turf in prime condition for everyone who uses the Park, from elite athletes to local players and residents from the surrounding Western Sydney community.
"Our turf team includes a coordinator who reports to me, four head groundsmen on site who all have 2ICs, two gardening and two greenkeeping apprentices," he said.
"We manage seven different varieties of couch, as well as sowing around 4 ha of sports turf on elite pitches in the cooler season."
When the cricket and AFL facilities were opened in 2009, Council allocated funding for an upgrade of turf management machinery, and the decision was made to invest in a full John Deere fleet through their local dealer at Penrith.
Heath says they 'haven't looked back', as the new technology and machinery enabled more efficient operations, made work easier for staff, and saved money.
"I would think the John Deere GPS technology has saved us around 10-15 per cent on nutrient application, and combined with drone surveying, has saved us tens of thousands of dollars a year in weed herbicide application and minimised our infestation numbers."
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Heath Taylor, Senior Supervisor, has had a 22-year career at Blacktown International Sports Park.
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The GPS technology on the ProGator™ 2030A spray units saves around 10-15 per cent on nutrient application.
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Heath's team manages the maintenance, preparation and renovation of 54 hectares of sports turf and landscapes across the Park.
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One of Blacktown International Sports Park's eight John Deere 7700 Fairway mowers.
Today's BISP green fleet consists of eight John Deere 7700 Fairway mowers, the newest GPS-driven; two enclosed 4520 tractors; a 4066R compact tractor with front end loader; six 855D Gators™; two skid steers; a 1500 Series front deck; and two ProGator™ 2030A spray units, one of which is GPS-driven.
"Moving forward, every item of machinery we buy now will be GPS-driven, because it makes life on site so much easier," Heath said.
"It minimises downtime, removes human error, and is easy to use – anyone on site doesn't need much more than a morning toolbox talk or run-through, like they would to use any other piece of equipment.
"With GPS, instead of concentrating on going straight for a whole run, you just have to turn the machine around at the end. It's beneficial because it gives staff a rest. Everyone's got a hundred things going on inside and outside of work, so if it's an easier job and you get a better result, that's a win-win."
Working with their local John Deere dealer Heath and his team also deploy drones supplied by agricultural drone and data specialists to fly fields with high concentrations of weeds.
The drones detect the chlorophyll in the weeds that differs in colour from couch grass during dormancy, and the mapping information they gather is uploaded into the ProGator 2030A GPS PrecisionSprayer unit.
"Effectively the combination of drone data and the GPS means we can treat 1.6 ha of turf and maybe only spray 4500 metres, which is a huge saving on product required, money spent, and product going into the environment, through being more precise," Heath said.
"The GPS spray unit is not far off being autonomous. It's turned on, we set up mapping in terms of boundaries, you hit the button and it steers itself. At the end of the run you loosely line it up and go again.
"It won't spray anything twice. If you do a run through the middle of the field and want to go east-west, once you get to something that's been sprayed it turns itself off, so you don't have an overlapping issue."
One initiative taken by Heath is to ensure he has staff who can look after the cutting units on the machines properly.
"The Blacktown City Council has made a large investment in training here and a few of us have our own grinding units and sharpen ourselves as we don't have a mechanic on site, so that helps to remove downtime and improve the services we deliver."
The BISP turf team's experience with new technology such as drone detection of weeds will be included in information packs being put together by their local John Deere dealership, and Heath and his team regularly host Councils and turf managers from across NSW who are interested in their progress.
"We need to have our finger on the pulse in terms of what's coming out and we're involved in a lot of trial work to see what works for us, what's viable," he said.
"I'm interested in all things new and exciting and I would absolutely recommend the machines in our John Deere fleet to other turf managers."
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