Laws are complicated, convoluted and often contradictory. This is not legal advice. Best to seek your own legal advise.
From this Australian Parliament article on Do Australians have a legal right to privacy?
“There is no constitutional right to privacy in Australia”
But some discussion about that ther could be a tort
“There is no general right to privacy recognised by the common law. This means that, under the common law, a person is not able to accuse their neighbour of infringing their privacy or insist on their neighbour removing a CCTV camera to restore their privacy.”
In NSW. I have not checked Qld
This 1937 case set the above, Australia wide, about ther being is no general right to privacy recognised by the common law.
Victoria Park Racing and Recreation Grounds Company Ltd v Taylor & Others (1937) 58 CLR 479.
Bacically, the racecourse was surrounded by a very high fence. Taylor, who had a house and front yard adjacent to the course, allowed the radio broadcasting station 2UW to construct a five-metre high platform on scaffolding from which someone could see into the course and broadcast – with the help of binoculars.
The Court did not recognize the existence of a legal right to privacy. As Latham CJ stated:
“With regard to the question of privacy, no doubt the owner of a house would prefer that a neighbour should not have the right of looking into his windows or yard, but neither this court nor a court of law will interfere on the mere ground of invasion of privacy; and a party has a right even to open new windows, although he is thereby enabled to overlook his neighbour's premises, and so interfering, perhaps, with his comfort.”
From Criminal Code Act 1889 (Qld)
“227AObservations or recordings in breach of privacy
(1)A person who observes or visually records another person, in circumstances where a reasonable adult would expect to be afforded privacy—
(a)without the other person’s consent; and
(b)when the other person—
(i)is in a private place; or
(ii)is engaging in a private act and the observation or visual recording is made for the purpose of observing or visually recording a private act;
commits a misdemeanour.
Maximum penalty—3 years imprisonment.”
So provided that it not where a reasonable adult would expect to be afforded privacy, and some other limited situations, video surveillance can take place. Even from a very high pole.
This interpretation of the definition of personal information in the Information Privacy Act 2009 recons that CCTV video is personal information, even though no mention of video is made in the Act. The interruptation states:
“Personal information is any information or opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.
If the camera surveillance footage is of sufficient quality, a person with the necessary knowledge will be able to reasonably ascertain the identity of an individual from the footage.
Quality is determined by factors including the image size and resolution, position of the person to the camera, and the degree to which the individual’s face or other identifying characteristics are visible.
If the person in the footage is identifiable, the footage will reveal information about that individual, for example that they were present in that space at that time. As such, camera surveillance footage potentially contains personal information and the obligations in the privacy principles apply.”
Note the word “potentially”. Ther are certain conditions than need to be met before CCTV video can be considered to be personal information.
As the Information Privacy Act 2009 does not use the word “video” but based on the above interpretation on that act video is regarded as personal information then video could be regarded as a document.
Schedule 1 of this Act, Documents to which the privacy principles do not apply,under 7 Other, A document that is— (a) a generally available publication.
Streamed CCTV video to the internet could be regarded as a generally available publication
As per a number of web sites, if your are concerned about privacy from Video surveillance it maybe best to build something or plant some trees so people can't see you in your backyard. But that probably won't stop drone surveillance.