Imagine waking up one day to find out the industry you work in had been suddenly banned overnight, without warning.
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That was how many of Ballarat’s commercial drone operators felt when they woke to the news Ballarat City Council now required permits to fly drones on municipal land.
Imagine your child unwrapping their Christmas present – a drone – only to find out there was nowhere legally in Ballarat for them to fly it.
That was the fate facing many parents following the council decision.
Drone operators were clear about their staunch opposition to the laws and the reasons were obvious.
The first was airspace and safety is the purview of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, not a council.
The second was CASA’s laws already adequately police the safe use of drones.
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Worried about your privacy in your backyard?
It is illegal to fly drones within 30 metres of people, making it illegal to fly across someone’s backyard when there is someone in it.
Drones can only fly to certain heights, to keep them out of the range of planes and they cannot fly of groups of people on public space – that also is already banned.
But perhaps more importantly for the drone operators is not what the new rules are, but the process by which they were introduced.
None were told of the impending change to their industry, whether you were a private or commercial drone pilot.
It is worth acknowledging council put the entire suite of local laws on display, but it was just one small section of a local laws document that was hundreds of pages long.
The same document also covered beekeeping, pets, sheep and derelict or unsafe buildings and properties.
That is a lot of reading to do on the off chance new laws regarding drones might be contained within it.
Earlier this year council released media statements about new laws to regulate unused properties, so it could ensure landowners did not let buildings fall into disrepair, ruining the streetscape and potentially damaging heritage in Ballarat.
So why was the same process not followed to let the owners of drones know they too were about to be covered by council’s local laws?
Some drone operators do flout the law, flying drones closer than people in public spaces would like – but this is already covered by CASA regulations.