Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and wife fighting legal battle over helicopters at their home
Outback Wrangler and his wife fight complaints about their helicopter coming from their home and engage in bitter legal battle with authorities
- Mr. Wright used helicopters in his NT home
- The planning authority says it violates the zoning plan
Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his wife Kaia are embroiled in a tense legal battle with Northern Territory planning officials over the use of part of his residence as a helipad.
Wright, 43, who stars in Wild Croc Territory on Netflix alongside his model wife, who is also an Instagram influencer, is in the middle of a three-month dispute with the NT’s Development Consent Authority (DCA).
The quarrel concerns helicopters used on the couple’s Virginia estate, just south of Darwin, which is zoned as a rural residential area.
Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) documents obtained by NT News reveal that the DCA got involved after two formal complaints were made over four days in 2021 about helicopters taking off, flying and landing.
The DCA issued an enforcement order stating that the couple violated zoning laws by using the property to fly planes.
Wild Croc Country star Matt Wright and his wife Kaia are involved in a legal dispute with the NT’s Development Consent Authority over the use of helicopters at their home
Mr. Wright runs a company called Helibrook, one of the NT’s largest helicopter companies
“The applicants have admitted, and there is no dispute, that Matthew Wright uses an unspecified portion of the property as a site used for helicopter landings or takeoffs,” the DCA wrote.
“(It is the opinion of the DCA) that the applicants have violated, violated and will violate the planning law.”
But the famous couple argued that they have “existing use rights” to fly helicopters at the sprawling address.
They claimed that because they bought the property in 2017, before the rules around landing sites were tightened in 2019 and the primary use of the property had not changed from rural living, they were not in violation of the Planning Act.
The DCA argued that this was ‘irrelevant’ and that changes to the planning law should be followed regardless.
NTCAT President Mark O’Reilly was told Friday that legal teams from both sides were ready to present their cases and that a two-hour hearing would follow in June or July.
The Wrights also try to have their legal costs covered if they win.
The DCA is also challenging this, saying the pair were given multiple chances to resolve the matter with the DCA before it went to court.
Mr. Wright is separately pursuing another legal battle related to a deadly helicopter crash involving an aircraft operated by a contractor and registered to his company Helibrook that crashed while on a trip to collect crocodile eggs.
Mr. Wright, known as the Outback Wrangler, has had a number of successful TV shows