Council enforcement action against Matt and Kaia Wright upheld

Netflix stars Matt and Kaia Wright have lost their bid to have enforcement action over the use of helicopters at one of their sprawling Top End homes set aside.

Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his wife Kaia. Picture: Instagram

Netflix stars Matt and Kaia Wright have lost their bid to have enforcement action over the use of helicopters at one of their sprawling Top End homes set aside.

The Development Consent Authority slapped the celebrity couple with an enforcement notice last year after the Wrights’ neighbours made multiple complaints to council about helicopter use at their semirural sanctuary, 28km south of Darwin.

The DCA said the couple had “contravened and are contravening” section 75 of the Planning Act by landing and taking off from their sprawling Virginia home in helicopters.

The reality television host and his influencer-wife have been fighting in the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal to have the enforcement action set aside ever since.

The couple argued they had “prior use rights”, that their helicopter use “formed part of the permitted land use of the property” and that helicopters were their everyday mode of transport when in the Territory.

Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright and wife Kaia. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

When the couple purchased the secluded 3.24ha property in January 2017 there was no mention of helicopter landing sites in the planning scheme at the time.

But in early 2019, the NT Planning Scheme was amended to introduce controls for the establishment and use of helicopter landing sites for private use.

In 2020, a new planning scheme was introduced and the same rules were carried over.

In mid-2021, the Development Assessment Services received two written complaints about the Wrights’ chopper use.

“The thrust of the complaint was that there had been an increase in the frequency of helicopter takeoffs and landings from the property,” NTCAT president Mark O’Reilly surmised.

A second complaint alleged helicopters had been landing and taking off at an “increased frequency and close proximity”.

In July 2022, the DCA informed the Wrights of its “intention to commence enforcement”. In September, a show cause notice was served. The next month an enforcement notice was issued.

Last November, the Wrights applied to the NTCAT to review the DCA’s decision. They posited three “limbs” or “issues” for the tribunal’s consideration.

“The first of those is the question of whether or not the use of the property for helicopter transportation is subsumed into the permitted use of the property as a single residential dwelling. In my view it is not,” Mr O’Reilly wrote.

Matt Wright with son Banjo and wife Kaia Wright filming Wild Croc Territory. Picture: The Fordham Company

The second limb posited by the Wrights raised the question as to whether use of the land as a helicopter landing site was ancillary use. “The Wrights’ argument in this respect relies wholly on their contention that the amendments and the 2020 scheme are not applicable to their situation,” he wrote. “As already discussed, I do not agree with that position.”

The third limb posited by the Wrights relates to “existing use”.

“The DCA’s position is that the onus is on the applicants to establish, on the balance of probabilities, that existing use applies,” he wrote. “At the time of issuing the enforcement notice the DCA was not satisfied that the Wrights had discharged that onus.”