Matt Wright: Outback Wrangler’s wild ride to fame and fortune

From knockabout horse wrangler to global TV star, Matt Wright is now facing serious charges over a fatal chopper crash. We take a look at his life, career and relationships.

He’s the knockabout former horse wrangler, Australian Army Reservist and award-winning tourism operator now facing serious charges over a Top End helicopter crash that killed a friend and fellow reality TV colleague.

But how did the former Queensland and South Australian schoolboy, who has been likened to world-famous adventurers Steve Irwin and Bear Grylls, end up here?

BACKGROUND

Matthew Nicholas Wright was born in South Australia.

During his childhood he lived in Queensland, Papua New Guinea and South Australia where he developed his love of wild and deadly animals in his early years.

According to a report in Adelaide’s Sunday Mail in 2011, as a kid Wright was obsessed with anything that “crawled or slithered” and would catch and keep snakes and spiders in his bedroom.

“It just seemed to grow and grow, and in school holidays with my mate Jono, we’d be out catching brown snakes and scorpions and bringing them home,” Wright said at the time.

“His mother and father were just havin’ fits. Good times, full of adventure. We were … up to mischief all the time. Back then we wanted to set up and run a wildlife park.”

In 2017, Wright was named an official 'Friend of Australia' by Tourism Australia. Picture: Justin Kennedy

After travelling and living in PNG with his family, they moved back to Cairns and then on to South Australia by the time he was 10 where he indulged his great love of the outdoors by hunting and eating rabbits and kangaroos.

Wright credited his mother for instilling in him a respect for animal life, which meant only killing when the killing had a purpose.

“I was forever picking up injured animals with busted wings or legs and patchin’ ‘em up,” he said.

He then spent most of his teen years on the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide, where he finished his schooling at Year 12.

Matt Wright developed a love of wildlife at an early age.

After leaving suburbia on the outskirts of Adelaide at age 18 he moved north and worked in different jobs across the country — like housekeeping in Falls Creek, Victoria, and mustering at a cattle station near Bourke in NSW.

During his travels he ended up in the Northern Territory before joining the Army Reserves, and then working on an oil rig.

By the age of 21, he got his helicopter licence — which was essentially the start of his ‘Outback Wrangler’ career brand.

PERSONAL LIFE

Wright met Kaia Hammond in 2014 at Western Australia’s Rottnest Island while she was holidaying with friends.

He landed in a helicopter before jumping onto a boat the one time Bondi student and communications graduate was on. She had been single for a year but when he boarded, the pair started a conversation and that was it.

Matt Wright and wife Kaia on their wedding day.

He proposed to 10-years his junior girlfriend Kaia in November 2016 and they married almost exactly one year later at a retreat near Margaret River in WA.

They live in the Northern Territory and now have two children together — son Banjo, born in 2019, and daughter Dusty Faith, who was born on November 18, 2022.

A STAR IS BORN

Matt Wright was dispatched to a cattle station about 180km south west of Darwin on a contract to catch a rogue crocodile that not only threatened the multimillion Brahman herd but tourists and recreational fishermen who visit the Barramundi rich waters.

Wright helps to restrain a crocodile. Picture: National Geographic/Foxtel

He was a virtual unknown in the industry when within hours of arriving he caught one of the biggest crocodiles in the world, an 850kg monster measuring almost 6m long in footage that went around the world.

“I’m just a helicopter pilot who has an interesting job,” the barrel-chested outback cowboy told the cameras with a cheeky grin in March 2009, with that nonchalant ‘only in the Top End’ type head shakes the Northern Territory is famous for attracting.

Within 18 months the size of the croc was only outmatched by the size of his pay packet as the 31-year-old Wright signed a multimillion-dollar global television deal with the National Geographic network.

Wright essentially became a “wildlife re-locator”, where he tracked down and moved animals, mostly crocodiles, out of harm’s way.

His National Geographic series Outback Wrangler was a worldwide hit, with the show reaching more than 130 countries.

This was followed by his Netflix series Wild Croc Territory.

Wright also operates his own tourism businesses where he offers outback adventure tours — like the Top End Safari Camp — in Darwin and across the Northern Territory.

THE NEXT STEVE IRWIN?

As his career progressed, Wright was continually compared to ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin.

It was a comparison that, perhaps, didn’t sit all that comfortably with Wright, who told Stellar magazine in 2017: “Steve was great. What he’s done is great. But he had a totally different outlook and attitude. We all sort of work for the same end goal, but we do it in our own ways.”

Wright, pictured in March 2020, has a Netflix series called Wild Croc Territory.

He has even been compared to Paul Hogan’s movie character ‘Crocodile Dundee’, which Wright didn’t mind so much because he believes it’s partly correct.

WARRANT FOR WRIGHT’S ARREST

On November 28, Northern Territory Police revealed they had issued a warrant for Wright’s arrest over a February 2022 crash that killed Wright’s Outback Wrangler and Wild Croc Territory co-star Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson.

Helicopter crash victim and former TV star Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson.

Pilot Sebastian Robinson was seriously injured in the crash but miraculously survived.

Northern Territory police spent the past nine months investigating the crash before issuing the warrant for Wright’s arrest this week.

Wright was given 48 hours to present at Darwin Police Station.

In a statement provided to NCA NewsWire, a spokesman for Mr Wright, 43, said his client “strenuously denies any wrongdoing”.

Wright, 43, pictured in the dark cap, arrives at Darwin Airport on November 29 after NT Police issued a warrant for his arrest. Picture: Sierra Haigh

“What happened was a tragic accident that took the life of a close mate,” the spokesman said.

“While this is part of an ongoing police investigation no further comments can be made,” the spokesman said.

WRIGHT CHARGED BY POLICE

Wright flew to Darwin from Sydney on November 29 with wife Kaia, their 11-day-old daughter Dusty and his lawyer David Newey from Gillis Delaney.

Wright handed himself into Northern Territory Police at the Darwin Police Station, where he was later charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, destroying evidence, fabricating evidence, unlawful entry into a building, unlawful entry into a dwelling, making a false declaration, and interfering with witnesses in a criminal investigation.

He was given bail and appeared before Darwin Local Court the following day where his matter was adjourned to January 25, 2023 for a preliminary examination mention.

Mr Wright was one of four people who flew by helicopter to the scene of the crash.

Two of those people – pilot Michael Burbidge and former police officer Neil Mellon – have since been charged with a number of offences, including destroying evidence.

Mr Mellon, a former senior acting sergeant, is facing 35 offences, including attempting to pervert the course of justice, destroying evidence and making false declarations, and will return to court on December 7.

Mr Burbidge was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, destroying evidence, making false declarations and fabricating evidence and will return to court on January 25, 2023.