News and announcements
CASA Safety Rules 
Have your say
30 Sep 2022
Announcements
Research and development, Community, Flying Drones
In Australia, drone delivery operators (like other businesses) must seek a variety of approvals prior to operating. These include approvals from: Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA); planning authorities; or other jurisdiction approvals (as required). They are also required to abide to regulations including: Part 101 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1988 (CASR) (managed by CASA which contains the rules governing all unmanned aircraft activities); and the Air Navigation (Aircraft Noise) Regulations 2018 (managed by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts). Before operating, drone delivery operators must also apply for noise approval. Two drone delivery services – Wing Aviation and Swoop Aero – have been approved to operate in Australia by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Their noise applications were approved by the department.
The department has approved delivery, community demonstration and test flights in the following areas.
The table shows the drone operator; state; local government areas/districts contact details.
| Drone Operator | State | Local Government Areas contact details |
| Swoop | QLD | |
| NSW | ||
|
Wing
|
ACT | Belconnen and Gungahlin |
| QLD | ||
| VIC |
If you wish to make a complaint about drone delivery operations in your area, you can do so by contacting CASA about unsafe drone operations, the department at Have your say | Drones or directly to your local council above.
The aircraft used in Wing’s and Swoop’s operations have been formally noise tested. In addition, aircraft must not overfly declared heritage or environmentally sensitive areas, such as National Parks and wetlands areas.
Photo credit: Wing Aviation LLC
Drone Delivery Guidelines
An Infrastructure Planning Framework was developed as a guide for planning for drone delivery services using small sized drones (less than 25kg). Further information is available at Infrastructure Planning Framework | Drones.
Other use cases: Remote health and parcel delivery
Adoption of new technologies and the geographical spread of population could be a catalyst for rapid uptake of drone technology in Australia. In the future, drones may improve access to health services by delivering medical supplies between regional centres and remote communities. International studies have found that drones are faster, more efficient and cheaper than other transport options for ‘last mile’ parcel deliveries (Valdani Vicari and Associati, 2020).