Drone footage has become a standard ingredient in commercial video, and so has confusion about the rules around it. If your business is commissioning aerial work in WA, you do not need to become an aviation lawyer, but you should know enough to recognise a compliant operator and to plan shoots realistically. Here are the basics as they stand, in plain terms. Rules evolve, so treat the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, CASA, at casa.gov.au as the source of truth, and this as orientation rather than advice.
The ground rules that apply to commercial flying
Commercial drone operation in Australia is regulated by CASA, and a few requirements sit under everything else:
- Drones flown for business purposes must be registered with CASA.
- The person or company flying needs the appropriate accreditation or licensing for the operation.
- Flights default to standard operating conditions, which include keeping the aircraft within visual line of sight, below 120 metres, at least 30 metres from people not involved in the operation, flying by day, one drone at a time, not over people, and staying clear of controlled aerodromes and emergency operations.
Those standard conditions are the box that ordinary flights live inside. Much of what makes commercial aerial cinematography interesting, flying closer, higher, at night, or in controlled airspace, involves stepping outside that box, which is where licensing levels start to matter.
Two pathways: excluded category or RePL and ReOC
For lighter drones, currently those under two kilograms, CASA provides a simplified commercial pathway known as the excluded category: the operator completes an accreditation, registers the drone, notifies CASA of the intent to operate, and stays strictly inside the standard operating conditions. It is a genuine and legal way to do simple commercial work with small aircraft.
Beyond that sits the professional tier: a Remote Pilot Licence, RePL, held by the pilot, operating under a company's RPA Operator Certificate, ReOC. This is the level that can apply to CASA for approvals beyond standard conditions, closer to people, into controlled airspace with clearance, night operations and more, backed by documented procedures and risk management. Most serious production work ends up here, not because the paperwork is glamorous, but because the shots clients want frequently live outside the default box.
What this means around Perth specifically
Perth's airspace is busier than it looks. Controlled airspace associated with Perth Airport and Jandakot covers much of the metropolitan area, and helicopter routes thread along the coast and river. In practice that means many metro locations require airspace awareness, approvals or both, and a compliant operator checks before quoting, using CASA-verified drone safety apps and charts rather than optimism. The upshot for clients: a CBD, coastal or near-airport shoot is often entirely achievable, it simply needs to be planned by someone holding the right approvals rather than booked for tomorrow afternoon.
Questions to ask before you commission aerial work
- Who is the operator, and do they hold a ReOC with licensed pilots, or appropriate accreditation for the job?
- Are the aircraft registered, and is the operation insured?
- Who is responsible for checking airspace and obtaining any approvals for the locations?
- Has a site-specific risk assessment been done, people, powerlines, wildlife, weather?
- Do the planned shots fit the rules, or do they require approvals that need lead time?
A professional operator answers these without blinking, and the questions themselves signal that shortcuts will not be welcome on your job.
Sites, events and other layers
CASA is not the only authority in the picture. Mine sites and ports commonly run their own RPAS procedures on top of the national rules, local councils and land managers have expectations for flights from their reserves, national parks have permit systems, and events concentrate the hardest problem in drone work, people, into one place, flights over crowds are effectively off the table without serious special approvals. None of this prevents great aerial work, it simply belongs in pre-production, where every other part of a good shoot already lives.
Weather, seasons and flight windows
Compliance is one planning axis, weather is the other, and in WA it is a real one. Perth's summer sea breeze arrives with enough force most afternoons to ground small aircraft or degrade footage, so metro aerial work favours mornings and golden-hour evenings. Winter brings fronts that can write off whole days, which is why professional quotes for aerial-dependent projects carry weather contingency rather than wishful thinking. In the north of the state the wet season concentrates aerial work into the dry months, and the light that makes the Kimberley and the Pilbara spectacular is seasonal too. None of this is a problem, it is scheduling: agree the priority shots, plan the windows they need, and hold a backup day where the film genuinely depends on the air. The operators who deliver consistently are not luckier with weather, they plan for it, and it is one more reason to book aerial work early in a project timeline rather than last, a weather re-fly is a minor reshuffle in week two and a crisis in delivery week.
The practical summary: aerial footage is worth having, the rules are workable, and compliance is a planning problem, easily solved early and painful late. If a project with drone work is on your horizon, tell us about the locations and we will handle the approvals as part of the aerial production, and for the current letter of the law, CASA's website is always the place to check.
