Brisbane’s Drone Zones for Enthusiasts Now Permanent

The efforts of drone enthusiasts who participated in Brisbane City Council’s Australian first drone zone parks trial since December last year have finally paid off. Drones will now become a common sight in the Brisbane sky, thanks to 10 permanent launch pads being rolled across the city. In Australia’s first, pressing demand from drone enthusiasts made the council hold a six-month trial of the zones from December 2017.

Brisbane residents in hundreds supported designated spaces to launch and land their drones, prompting Brisbane City Council to make dedicated drone zones across the city permanent.

Councillor David McLachlan, the head of the council’s environment, parks and sustainability committee, said “More than 700 people provided feedback to Council following the trial and 80 per cent of those support Council in providing spaces in parks for the launch and landing of drones.”

“After reviewing the current locations, Council has determined the current sites will remain available to drone users and Council will look to additional sites that could be leased by clubs for drone racing and fixed-wing aircraft activities. Council’s announcement today will allow users to continue to launch and land drones between 500g to 2kg in weight at these 10 sites.”

The Common Park at Coorparoo, Canterbury Park at Bald Hills, Carindale Recreation Reserve and Wishart Community Park are the designated areas for launching the drones, as also are Lacey Road Park in Carseldine, Keperra Picnic Grounds Park and Cliveden Park in Fig Tree Pocket.

The criteria for Mini-drones flying from any council park would be: compliance with Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulations and restrictions imposed around Brisbane and Archerfield Airports; drone weight less than 500g.

The council’s environment, parks and sustainability chairman David McLachlan said, “Council has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from its trial of 10 sites and hundreds of people have been taking advantage of these designated areas to take off land their drones that are up to two kilograms,”.

“Although the Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulate the flying of drones and other remotely piloted aircraft while they are in the air, council regulates the launching and landing of these aircraft from Council land, including parks,” McLachlan added.