Developing near Royal Darwin Hospital

If you want to build or develop near Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH), you must meet certain planning rules.

This includes making sure you don't affect a helicopter's flight paths and their access to the landing site.

Access to the landing site

Helicopters use the landing site during medical emergencies. When transporting a patient, pilots will usually fly by sight and take the shortest route.

During bad weather, they may not have good visibility and rely on instruments to guide them. In these cases, they may use a different route.

The Northern Territory Planning Scheme provides 2 flight paths to be used in these conditions. They are marked by an overlay.

If your development will be in the overlay area, you may need approval before you can start any work or activity.

When you need approval

You must get approval if your development:

• is higher than 8.5m - including any flag pole, aerial, antenna or lightning rod, or any construction equipment used to carry out the works
• contains lighting that projects upwards, or coloured or flashing lighting external to the development
• will produce an exhaust plume which has an upward vertical velocity of 4.3m or more per second when released.

If your development contains any of the above, you must show how your application will meet the overlay requirements.

Your application will be referred to the operator of the helicopter landing site for comment.

They will give feedback on whether the proposal will affect:

• the ongoing operation and viability of the hospital landing site or
• helicopter movements.

Conditions

The operator may also request conditions on the development permit to address any identified impacts such as:

• the maximum allowable height of proposed structures or modifications to the proposed structure to make them more visible to helicopter pilots, such as obstruction lights
• modification to exhaust vents to redirect exhaust plumes
• a flight path construction management plan for temporary structures, such as cranes
• alterations or removal of distractive lighting
• any other condition that the landing site operator deems appropriate to ensure the continual operation of the landing site.

Contact

For more information, contact Development Assessment Services by calling 08 8999 6046 or emailing das.ntg@nt.gov.au.