Drone rules to be toughened in Australia
The Civil Aviation and Safety Authority in Australia is implementing the world's toughest rules on drones due to the surge in popularity for the flying "unmanned aerial vehicles". Australia is one of the few countries that has strict regulations for drones, however, these are at present for commercial use, not recreational. This move follows recent incidents such as a drone flying over a bushfire near Sydney that resulted in emergency services having to ground firefighting aircraft.
Australia is set to have among the world's toughest rules on drones after the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority rewrites its regulations in the new year.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the "huge growth" in popularity of the flying "unmanned aerial vehicles" – which are helicopter-like craft, with GPS and cameras – meant regulations had to be "updated".

Aviation regulator CASA says new rules are coming for drones in 2015. Credit: Bradley Kanaris

At the moment drones for commercial use by police, fire services, aerial photographers and in some agricultural settings are regulated by CASA. Commercial users – there are 180 in Australia, a jump on only 34 in 2013 – need a licence. But recreational users do not.

Australia is already one of the few countries to strictly regulate increasing commercial drone use – Fairfax Media reported on Sunday that Melbourne real estate agents are now using them to capture views from apartments which are yet to be built for use in marketing.