By Liam Carver — updated 18 May 2026
If you’ve been flying since the Phantom era you already know that CASA’s drone rules in Australia move sideways more often than they move forwards. The headline rules — visual line of sight, 120m altitude ceiling, 30m from people — have been steady for almost a decade. But the layer underneath those headlines (registration, accreditation, where you can actually launch) has been quietly rewritten three times since 2020. Here is what is current in 2026, what changed in the last 12 months, and what is on CASA’s roadmap for the next 12.
The headline rules are unchanged
You can still fly a sub-2kg recreational drone in Australia without an operator’s certificate, provided you stick to the standard operating conditions. Those conditions, in plain language:
- Daylight only. Visual line of sight at all times. No FPV-only flying unless you have a spotter physically next to you.
- Maximum altitude 120 metres above ground level.
- Stay at least 30 metres away from people not associated with the flight.
- One drone at a time per pilot.
- Not within 5.5km of a controlled aerodrome.
- Not over or near emergency operations — bushfires, police incidents, search and rescue.
- Not over populous areas (sports grounds during a match, festivals, beaches in summer).
If any of that is news, stop reading this and go through CASA’s drone rules page first. We get tips every week from pilots who genuinely did not know the 5.5km airport rule exists.
What actually changed in 2025
Two things changed materially in the last year.
Registration is now compulsory for anything over 250g flown recreationally. This was rolled out properly in mid-2024 and the grace period ended in early 2025. If you bought a Mini 3 Pro at JB Hi-Fi last Christmas, it’s under 250g and you don’t need to register it. If you bought an Air 3, a Mavic 3 Pro, a Holy Stone HS720E, or pretty much any “real” drone, you do.
Registration costs $40 per drone per year for recreational use. We have heard from a couple of readers that they tried to skip it and were tracked down because they were stupid enough to post crash footage with serial numbers visible on Reddit. CASA is not actively hunting pilots, but the moment they have a name they will follow up.
The accreditation test got harder. The free online accreditation that all recreational pilots over 250g have to hold was rewritten in late 2024 to cover EVLOS and operations near emergency services more explicitly. The test is still free, still online, still takes about an hour, and you still get unlimited attempts. We re-took it ourselves in March and it’s no longer a “click the obvious answer” exercise — you have to actually read.
What changed in 2026 (so far)
One quiet update: the “30 metres from people” rule got a bit more explicit. CASA now defines “associated with the flight” as someone who has been briefed and is actively participating in the operation. Your kids watching from the picnic blanket are not associated with the flight. The mate holding your beer is not associated with the flight. The spotter wearing a hi-vis vest and confirming altitude readings is.
This sounds pedantic but it has bitten a few commercial operators who were assuming “anyone we told to stand back” counted. It doesn’t.
What’s coming next
CASA published a roadmap in February 2026 that outlined two upcoming changes worth knowing about:
- Remote ID for sub-2kg drones is being scoped for a 2027 rollout. This is the same direction the FAA took in the US in 2023. In practical terms, drones will need to broadcast their position and operator ID via a short-range protocol. Existing DJI gear from the Mavic 3 generation onwards already has the hardware. Older drones probably won’t — expect a regulatory cliff for anyone still flying a Phantom 4.
- Expanded sub-250g exemptions are off the table. A push from industry to extend “no registration needed” up to 300g (which would have brought a lot of FPV kit into the recreational tier) was rejected.
What this means if you’re buying a drone right now
If you’re shopping for a first drone in Australia and you want to keep the paperwork light, the simplest path is to buy something under 250g. The DJI Mini line is the obvious answer here — the DJI Mini 4 Pro is the current generation and Hannah covers it in detail in our best beginner drones under $500 guide.
If you want a proper camera drone and don’t mind the $40/year registration, the Air 3 and Mavic 3 lines remain the safest buys. Both have been around long enough that firmware is mature and Australian service centre support is real.
Avoid sub-$200 generic drones from marketplaces unless you are explicitly buying a toy to crash. They tip the scales just over 250g, so you still need to register, but they don’t have the safety features (geo-fencing, return-to-home, obstacle sensors) that make registration worth the paperwork in the first place.
The bottom line for 2026
Nothing in the rules right now should stop a careful pilot from getting out and flying. The compliance overhead for recreational flying is genuinely modest: free accreditation, $40/year registration, common sense about where you launch. The annoying part is that the rules are scattered across three different CASA web pages and the names keep changing — “RPA” became “drone” became “drone” again, the “Operator Accreditation” got renamed to “Operator Accreditation” with new content underneath the same label.
Our advice: bookmark the CASA drone page directly, re-do the accreditation every two years even though it doesn’t strictly require it, and keep a screenshot of your registration confirmation on your phone in case anyone official ever asks.
Got a CASA query you can’t get a straight answer on? Email us at [email protected] — we maintain a list of common rule-edge cases and we’d rather answer them than have you find out the hard way.
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