Aviation authorities are struggling to keep up with a boom in remote controlled drones over Australia's cities.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has issued warnings to more than 100 users for safety breaches and is now scrambling to roll out a public awareness campaign.

A number of safety scares including an incident involving an athlete and a drone in Western Australia have underscored demands from some within the industry for tougher regulations.

Raija Ogden was competing in a triathlon in Geraldton when she says she was hit by a drone.

She has backed demands for better controls.

"I agree that there should be better enforcement of regulations and more appropriate penalties for breaches," she said.

The rules appear to be poorly understood among amateurs in particular.

Remote controlled drones can be bought relatively cheaply from mainstream retailers or online but they do not come with any information about how to fly safely.

CASA now plans to ask retailers to hand out leaflets explaining the regulations.

Drones cannot be flown within 30 metres of cars, buildings or people; at night; or above 400 feet.

Raija Ogden lays on the ground after being hit by a drone. ( Supplied: Geraldton Guardian )

CASA's director of aviation safety John McCormick says the boom has been difficult to police.

"Of course if people post videos and things on YouTube and there's some way for us to see who that is we can follow it back that way and we have done that," Mr McCormick said.

"But generally speaking we run into the difficulty of being able to do it real time and being able to be there, and frankly we don't have enough people to be everywhere all over Australia all of the time."

The pilot of a Westpac rescue helicopter in Newcastle who had a near miss with a drone earlier this year says there needs to be more education about the rules.

"It’s quite important that we end up with a system whereby those new owners appreciate just exactly what the obligations are on flying a device like that," Kevin Ratcliffe said.

One industry body representing a third of licensed operators says CASA is under-resourced.

In its submission to a parliamentary inquiry into drones, the Australian Certified UAV Operators Association demands more policing of rogue operators, heftier fines and a registration system for amateur enthusiasts.

"If this is not policed and an education campaign isn't really communicated to the population we'd have an incident where a manned aircraft has a midair collision with a unmanned aerial vehicle and the potential impact of that could be catastrophic, especially over populous areas," association president Joe Urli said.