Use of RDL Funds

QSA’s mission is to support and develop sports aviation throughout S-QLD. To achieve this, the QSA Committee determines the Regional Development Levy (RDL) collected by SAFA as part of members’ annual renewals and invests these funds to benefit the sport across our region.

Since QSA was established, the RDL has remained at $22 per member, making it one of the lowest regional levies in Australia. QSA aims to maximise the value of these funds by directing the vast majority of the levy back into the sport, while maintaining only a modest operating budget to cover essential administrative costs such as financial reporting and website hosting.

To date, QSA’s income has come almost entirely from the RDL paid by SAFA members in S-QLD. We are, however, actively seeking additional funding through Queensland Government sporting grants and other external funding opportunities. If you become aware of a grant that may be relevant to QSA, please don’t hesitate to contact us (president@qsa.asn.au). We would be delighted to hear from you!

Supporting Projects of SAFA members

The funds we receive from SAFA members are mainly invested into our Sports Aviation Grant Program, which provides funding for projects that benefit sports aviation in South Queensland. Any SAFA member may apply for funding throughout the year by completing the application form available on our Grants page. Applications are assessed by the QSA Committee based on their expected benefits to the sport, value for money, and alignment with QSA and SAFA goals.

Supporting our Clubs

Our region is fortunate to have exceptionally active clubs that play a vital role in supporting sports aviation. They work closely with landowners, CASA, Airservices Australia, the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, and local councils to establish and maintain flying sites. Clubs also coordinate site maintenance, organise fly-ins, cross-country mentoring, reserve repack days, safety workshops, and support the training and registration of Safety Officers (SOs) and AIRS managers. The strength of our clubs has enabled S-QLD to maintain access to a diverse range of flying sites, including sites located within national parks and controlled airspace—locations that would be difficult for a regional association alone to establish or maintain.

To ensure that RDL funds are distributed fairly, we ask all SAFA-affiliated clubs in S-QLD to provide their membership lists each year. We then determine the number of SAFA members who hold full membership in each club and distribute the available funds in proportion to those memberships. Where members belong to more than one club, their RDL contribution is shared equally between those clubs. For example, if a member belongs to two clubs, each club is counted as having half a SAFA member, and this is further reduced is a SAFA member is a full member of three clubs.

If a club received RDL funding in the previous funding round, we also request an expenditure statement or cash receipts from the club, to ensure that the funds were used to support sports aviation within the region before we transfer the new funds.

Listening to Our Members

QSA serves all SAFA members of S-QLD, and we believe that decisions about the use of Regional Development Levy (RDL) funds should reflect the priorities of the people who contribute them.

In 2025, we conducted a region-wide member survey to better understand what members value most and how they would like QSA to invest RDL funds. The survey included questions about our funding priorities, the Sports Aviation Grant Program, and financial support for affiliated clubs. The results of the survey are available here, and showed strong support for QSA’s current funding model, including the continued use of RDL funds to support both regional initiatives and the clubs that do so much to keep our flying sites open, maintain infrastructure, organise events, and support safe flying across S-QLD.

We are committed to continuing this conversation with our members, and will regularly check with members whether we are still aligned on how we invest the RDLs. If you have ideas for new initiatives or suggestions on how RDL funds could be used more effectively, we would love to hear from you.

How We’ve Invested RDL Funds

QSA is committed to using Regional Development Levy (RDL) funds responsibly, transparently, and for the benefit of sports aviation in S-QLD. The graphs below show how RDL funds have been distributed in previous financial years, providing members with a clear overview of how their contributions have been invested. To view projects supported through the Sports Aviation Grant Program, please visit the Grants website.

In the graphs below, Admin includes website hosting, email services, and Office of Fair Trading (OFT) fees. Finance refers to the preparation of QSA’s annual financial reports. As part of our ongoing efforts to maximise the proportion of RDL funds invested directly into the sport, the committee has implemented several cost-saving measures. In 2025, QSA stopped relying on an external provider to administer and maintain the website, which had cost us approximately $1,500/year in 2024. The website is now managed by in-house by volunteers from the QSA management committee with annual hosting costs of $240 per year, which reduced our admin costs by more than $1,000. This allows a greater proportion of RDL funds to be invested directly into sports aviation.

From 2026 onwards, QSA’s financial reports will be prepared internally, eliminating external accounting costs, saving another ~$800 per year.

If you have any questions about QSA’s finances or would like a copy of our financial reports, please contact our Secretary secretary@qsa.asn.au or our Treasurer treasurer@qsa.asn.au.