The drone shot is the one line on a video quote that can be made illegal by where the tripod ends up standing, rather than by what you spend. An aerial is a question of airspace, of consent, and of a credential somebody either holds or does not.
Search drone filming rules Australia New Zealand and you are expecting one rulebook with a bit of local variation. There are two, built on different foundations. Below: how they differ, what stops an aerial in Melbourne as opposed to Queenstown, and what to ask whoever is flying.
Australia Gates the Aerial on Credentials, New Zealand on Consent
In Australia, CASA’s standard operating conditions are the baseline. At or below 120 metres, by day, no closer than 30 metres to a person not involved in the operation, not over a populous area, and not within 5.5 kilometres of a controlled aerodrome. Fly for business and you must also register the drone whatever it weighs, and hold an operator accreditation.
Under 2 kilograms, that is the entire requirement — the sub-2kg excluded category needs no remote pilot licence and no operator’s certificate, provided the flight stays inside those conditions. Step outside them and the path changes: a licensed remote pilot, flying for a business holding a remotely piloted aircraft operator’s certificate, with a CASA approval for the specific thing you want to do.
New Zealand begins somewhere else. Civil Aviation Rule Part 101 covers commercial work as well as recreational, so a great deal of paid flying happens with no CAA involvement at all. No drone register. No pilot licence. What Part 101 asks for instead is permission: consent before flying over people and property, under 25 kilograms, below 120 metres, daylight only, in your own sight, outside low flying zones, and more than 4 kilometres from the boundary of any aerodrome. In controlled airspace you need a clearance from Airways unless the flight qualifies as a shielded operation.
A job that cannot meet all of that needs a Part 102 unmanned aircraft operator certificate, granted on an operating manual showing how the particular risks are managed — and flying over people or property without their prior consent sits squarely on that side of the line. So in Australia the aerial usually turns on who is flying it; in New Zealand, on whose permission was obtained first.
In Melbourne the Ground Stops You Before the Airspace Does
Metro Melbourne has four aerodromes with control towers — Tullamarine, Essendon Fields, Moorabbin and Avalon — and each puts a 5.5 kilometre radius around itself that a drone over 250 grams cannot enter without approval. Draw those four circles and a lot of the city sits inside one.
For corporate work, though, the airspace is rarely what kills the shot. The populous area rule is. A populous area is defined by density — enough people that a fault or failure of the aircraft would pose an unreasonable risk to life or safety — which describes a CBD forecourt at lunchtime, a staff carpark at five o’clock, a conference load-in, a park on a Saturday. The 30 metre separation from uninvolved people finishes the job.
A smaller rule catches people out. You may fly within 5.5 kilometres of a non-controlled aerodrome, and within 1.4 kilometres of a helicopter landing site — but the moment you become aware of an aircraft operating, you must not launch, and must move clear and land if already up. Inner-city hospital helipads make that a live clause.
The honest answer is often scheduling rather than paperwork. A 7am Sunday call on an empty forecourt turns a flight that needed an approval into one that does not. And sometimes the aerial is not worth what it takes, because the shot reads better on a gimbal at head height anyway. Worth settling before aerial and drone work goes onto a quote.
In Queenstown the Airspace Comes Down to the Ground
Queenstown is the inverse problem. The controlled airspace around the airport extends well past the 4 kilometre aerodrome buffer and comes down to ground level across much of the basin, so a great deal of filming in and around town needs an air traffic control authorisation, requested through Airshare. There are also low flying zones where drone operations cannot happen while the zone is active.
Then there is the land, a separate conversation from the air. Queenstown Lakes District Council has stated it is not currently giving approvals for drones over council land unless the operator holds Part 102 certification — removing the standard Part 101 path from much of the ground you would want to film from. Conservation land, lakebeds and riverbeds bring their own permissions on top, as we covered in the post on filming for Queenstown tourism and adventure operators.
The Illegal Flight Is Also the Uninsured Flight
CASA’s guidance to anyone hiring a drone operator: ask to see the remote pilot licence, which shows the type and weight category approved; confirm the pilot is operating for a business holding an operator’s certificate; confirm the insurance covers the service provided.
It also makes a blunter point: flying without the correct licence, a registered drone, or the approval the flight required can void the operator’s insurance. That exposure is not the pilot’s alone. If an aircraft comes down through a glass atrium, whose policy responds turns partly on whether the flight was lawful, and the business that booked the day is in that conversation whether it wants to be.
Both regulators publish a searchable list — CASA’s register of certificate holders, and the CAA’s list of Part 102 operators. Check the name on your quote against the register, and make sure the quote names who is actually flying: a subcontracted pilot is a different legal entity from the company selling you the day.
The Questions Worth Putting in Writing
Send these to whoever is quoting the drone, in either country. Answers should come back fast and specific; vague ones are themselves the finding. More booking questions sit in our frequently asked questions.
- Which path is this flight under? Australia: the excluded category inside standard operating conditions, or a licensed pilot under an operator’s certificate plus a CASA approval. New Zealand: Part 101 with consents, or Part 102.
- Is the drone registered? In Australia, business use requires registration at any weight, including under 250 grams.
- Will the flight be over people, or inside a populous area? If so, name the approval that authorises it rather than describing how careful the pilot is.
- Which airspace, and does it need an authorisation? In New Zealand that goes through Airshare, well in advance.
- Whose land, and who has asked them? Council, conservation or private landowner permission is separate from aviation permission; neither substitutes for the other.
- In New Zealand, is consent from people being overflown in writing? Verbal consent is consent until somebody disputes it.
- Does the insurance name this activity? Ask for the certificate of currency, not a reassurance.
- What if the flight is declined, or the weather closes in? A day with no ground-level fallback for the aerial sequence is a day with a hole in it.
Check this rather than acting on it. New Zealand’s Part 101 and Part 102 rules changed on 22 December 2025, and both regulators revise guidance regularly. The primary sources are free and more current than this post: CASA’s drone rules, its advice on hiring an operator, the CAA’s Part 101 and Part 102 pages, and Airshare.
An aerial is the easiest thing to promise on a phone call and the hardest to guarantee on the day. Settle the airspace, the land and the certificate early rather than at 7am, whichever of our production services it sits inside. To find out what is actually available over your site, get in touch.
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