Parks Victoria, Rules & Regulations, Help Needed.

[Beet]

G,day, I am in south-eastern Victoria, along the coast there a several fauna&flora reserves as well as game hunting reserves. These are located in Coastal Parks (Crown Land), they are managed by Parks Vic. but they are not part of any National Parks.
Drones are prohibited on all Victorian National Parks land, I was stopped flying by a Ranger at one site, when I suggested he was wrong because we were on Crown land, he said did not matter because they are the managers.
Does anyone know if that is right.
Thanks and safe flying.

 

[WanderLost]

G,day, I am in south-eastern Victoria, along the coast there a several fauna&flora reserves as well as game hunting reserves. These are located in Coastal Parks (Crown Land), they are managed by Parks Vic. but they are not part of any National Parks.
Drones are prohibited on all Victorian National Parks land, I was stopped flying by a Ranger at one site, when I suggested he was wrong because we were on Crown land, he said did not matter because they are the managers.
Does anyone know if that is right.
Thanks and safe flying.

If your Provincial/National parks are anything like ours in Canada here - yes the Rangers and Supers have the final say about whether you can fly or not. Our rules from Transport Canada are no drones allowed in the parks "unless" you have permission from the Superintendent and usually only for suitable reasons like land management, research, reforestation or a documentary of some kind.
I've flown in our Conservation areas and at a Provincial park - but I've been mapping erosion and restoration efforts. The park super had no problems allowing me to fly off season. You might get lucky if you approach the Rangers and ask if there might be a suitable time you could fly to document the park and make your photos/videos available to them for their website.

 

[platty]

I have been told ( by a fellow drones ) if you take off and land outside of the park you can fly over the park coz they don’t control the airspace. I don’t know if that is entirely correct but I have had correspondence with Parks Victoria coz I want to film the coast neat Flinders, Cape Schank and all along the rugged coast and found Parks Victoria allow that as I’m not flying over their land. Hopefully someone as a very definite answer about flying over National or Coastal Parks.

 

[Beet]

I have been told ( by a fellow drones ) if you take off and land outside of the park you can fly over the park coz they don’t control the airspace. I don’t know if that is entirely correct but I have had correspondence with Parks Victoria coz I want to film the coast neat Flinders, Cape Schank and all along the rugged coast and found Parks Victoria allow that as I’m not flying over their land. Hopefully someone as a very definite answer about flying over National or Coastal Parks.

You are correct, as long as you take-off & land outside the national park boundary, you can then fly over the park.
The areas I am asking about are not national park land, it's just managed by ParksVic, it's crown/public land.

 

[AnzacJack]

This is an area that is horribly managed. The bottom line is that legally, you are able to operate there.
BUT (and this is a big but) the locals can stop you and give you infringement notices. If you then want to fight this, you may go to court and do so, and you will most likley win. This is been tested in the NT and the drone operator eventually won the case. But do you really want to go through all of that for a rec flight.

If you wish to conduct this operation as a commercial venture, then i would be getting all of my CASA approvals and submit them to the local authority with your intentions. If you keep it all professional and polite, you generally will not have an issue.

At the moment Vic, NSW and Tas local authorities can be a right pain in the back side, while the other States pretty well run in line with CASA and Environment regs. (Environmental stuff mainly around whales, nesting sites etc)

 

[Beet]

This is an area that is horribly managed. The bottom line is that legally, you are able to operate there.
BUT (and this is a big but) the locals can stop you and give you infringement notices. If you then want to fight this, you may go to court and do so, and you will most likley win. This is been tested in the NT and the drone operator eventually won the case. But do you really want to go through all of that for a rec flight.

If you wish to conduct this operation as a commercial venture, then i would be getting all of my CASA approvals and submit them to the local authority with your intentions. If you keep it all professional and polite, you generally will not have an issue.

At the moment Vic, NSW and Tas local authorities can be a right pain in the back side, while the other States pretty well run in line with CASA and Environment regs. (Environmental stuff mainly around whales, nesting sites etc)

Thank you AnzacJack, that is what I needed to know, that's what I thought. And no, I wont be trying it out in court.
Safe flying..

 

[AnzacJack]

Thanks mate, you too.
Stay under the radar

 

[il Padrone]

G,day, I am in south-eastern Victoria, along the coast there a several fauna&flora reserves as well as game hunting reserves. These are located in Coastal Parks (Crown Land), they are managed by Parks Vic. but they are not part of any National Parks.
Drones are prohibited on all Victorian National Parks land, I was stopped flying by a Ranger at one site, when I suggested he was wrong because we were on Crown land, he said did not matter because they are the managers.
Does anyone know if that is right.
Thanks and safe flying.

As far as I am aware the rules by Parks Victoria prevent you OPERATING a drone from Parks Victoria managed lands. This includes many Conservation Reserves and Wildlife Sanctuaries as well as National Parks. You really need to check who the land manager is.
"Operating' refers to launching, landing or controlling the drone from the land area. You have few restrictions on flying over a national park while operating it from other public or private (with permission) land. However the CASA rules requiring you to fly within visual line of sight (VLOS) will restrict how far you can fly. Realistically not much more than 300-400 metres from the park boundary.

I have been told ( by a fellow drones ) if you take off and land outside of the park you can fly over the park coz they don’t control the airspace. I don’t know if that is entirely correct but I have had correspondence with Parks Victoria coz I want to film the coast neat Flinders, Cape Schank and all along the rugged coast and found Parks Victoria allow that as I’m not flying over their land. Hopefully someone as a very definite answer about flying over National or Coastal Parks.

You should be very aware that much of the coast around Flinders is subject to the West Head Naval Gunnery Station exclusion zone. Check with the OK2Fly phone app. This exclusion zone extends all the way almost to Bushrangers Bay near Cape Schank. I have flown at Bushrangers Bay as the beach there is outside of the National Park and outside the West Head exclusion zone.