Carry out low impact activities and airborne operations

If you're a petroleum company that wants to carry out low impact activities, there are rules you must follow.

You don’t need an approved land access agreement with a landholder for low impact activities, but you must notify them first.

Types of impact activities

Low impact activities include:

• preliminary activities such as:
  • taking water samples
  • taking rock samples without using heavy machinery
  • taking soil samples to a depth of up to four metres
• carrying out surveys including airborne operations that don’t involve the:
  • clearing of any vegetation
  • permanent installation of any infrastructure or equipment on land
• other activities that have no impact or only low impact on land that comprise, or are directly related to, testing, monitoring or maintaining infrastructure without the use of heavy equipment
• airborne operations such as:
  • flying over any part of a permit area or licence area by an aircraft (including a helicopter)
  • causing a drone to fly over any part of a permit area or licence area
• driving a vehicle, other than a heavy vehicle, on land relating to your low impact activities
• taking workers to and from a location on a permit area or licence area
• landing a helicopter on any part of a permit area or licence area.

Before you begin your activities

You must issue a notice to the landholder to inform them of your activities.

It is an offence under the Petroleum Regulations 2020 to carry out low impact activities without giving the landholder notice.

You must give at least 14 days’ notice before you start.

Follow these steps:

Step 1. Notify the landholder

To notify the landholder, follow these steps:

Step 1a. Fill in the notice of low impact activities DOCX (70.9 KB).

You must include the following information:

• a plan and description of the land you want to conduct preliminary activities on
• your petroleum interest
• a description of the low impact activities you want to carry out
• any infrastructure on the land relating to the low impact activities you want to carry out
• details of any vehicle or equipment you will use on the land for the activities
• for airborne operations - the type of aircraft or drone you will use and the altitude they will be flying at
• the number of people expected to be involved in the activities
• when you will carry out the activities
• how long the activities will take
• your contact details.

Step 1b. Issue the notice to the landholder.

Step 2. Notify the chief executive officer

You must notify the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade chief executive officer (CEO) within 7 days of issuing the notice of preliminary activities to the landholder.

To notify, submit a copy of the notice to Land Access.

After you have given notice

After you have notified the landholder, you can carry out your activities.

You must:

• not drive a vehicle off an existing road or track during your activities without written consent from the landholder
• backfill any hole created during your activities with the remaining soil or material extracted when creating the hole, as soon as possible
• carry out your activities with minimal disturbance to livestock.

It is an offence if you fail to comply with these requirements.