The Aporia · ‘You wouldn’t want your grandmother living there’: Rinehart’s acoustic expert grilled over Perth helipad noise claims

‘You wouldn’t want your grandmother living there’: Rinehart’s acoustic expert grilled over Perth helipad noise claims

Read the original at The Sydney Morning Herald ↗

Cite

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Hildebrandt, C. (2026, October 27). ‘You wouldn’t want your grandmother living there’: Rinehart’s acoustic expert grilled over Perth helipad noise claims. The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/you-wouldn-t-want-your-grandmother-living-there-rinehart-s-acoustic-expert-grilled-over-perth-helipad-noise-claims-20261027-p6192v.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Quick Summary

During a State Administrative Tribunal hearing in Perth, an acoustic engineer named Luke Zoontjens testified about Gina Rinehart’s proposed rooftop helipad for her company Hancock Prospecting. The City of Perth had rejected the proposal due to noise concerns, and the city’s barrister questioned Zoontjens on his reliance on information provided by Rinehart’s team without independent verification. Predicted maximum noise levels near residential areas were close to 90 decibels, leading to speculation that residents might experience significant disturbance. The hearing highlighted doubts about enforcing compliance with noise restrictions once the helipad is approved.

Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-27, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Gina Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, is contesting the City of Perth's rejection of a proposed helipad on its West Perth headquarters at Ord Street. The hearing took place in the State Administrative Tribunal after the city council denied the project in December 2026 due to concerns over noise and whether it fit with existing planning schemes. Despite some councillors supporting the idea, opposition stemmed from worries about disrupting nearby residential areas; one critic said residents "wouldn’t want their grandmother living there" given the potential noise levels. Hancock Prospecting’s legal team argued that the helipad would only be used for up to 12 times a year during daylight hours, contributing to minimal noise pollution—equivalent to an electric kettle boiling for six minutes every two weeks. However, the city's acoustic engineer admitted relying on information from an “experienced helicopter pilot” provided by Rinehart’s project team without independent verification, raising questions about the accuracy of his findings.

Written for “Rinehart Helipad Dispute” on 2026-10-28, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.

Why this leaning score

This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.

No political leaning scored for article 109484 · logged 2026-10-27

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 18% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

Gina Rinehart takes fight for helipad at Hancock’s Perth HQ to tribunal same event · 95%

The Sydney Morning Herald

⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 17% hedged 3 of 18 📰 publisher trust 61

“Both articles discuss Gina Rinehart’s legal challenge to build a helipad on her West Perth headquarters at Ord Street through the State Administrative Tribunal, specifically addressing the noise concerns raised by the City of Perth.”

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

18%

5 of 28 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

61/100

The Sydney Morning Herald's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Politics

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-10-27 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Sydney Morning Herald · 5220 article(s) · 12 correction(s) detected

Running correction rate · 12 correction(s)

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Who wrote this

Carla Hildebrandt

5 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 The barrister then turned to Zoontjens’ noise predictions, pressing him on what would happen if the noise was louder than expected and whether the city could do anything about it.

2026-10-27 · assertive framing · ‘You wouldn’t want your grandmother living there’: Rinehart’s acoustic expert grilled over Perth helipad noise claims

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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

Topics

Ord Street Holdings Perth West Perth the City of Perth the State Administrative Tribunal

Subjects

Zoontjens PERSON · 11× Houweling PERSON · 7× SAT ORG · 2× West Perth GPE · 2× Gina Rinehart’s PERSON · 1× Ord Street Holdings ORG · 1× Perth GPE · 1× Rinehart PERSON · 1× the City of Perth GPE · 1× the State Administrative Tribunal ORG · 1×

Narrative

An acoustic engineer hired to assess the noise impacts of Gina Rinehart’s proposed Perth rooftop helipad has admitted relying on information from an “experienced helicopter pilot” supplied by the billionaire’s project team without independently verifying it.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-27

🔮 The barrister then turned to Zoontjens’ noise predictions, pressing him on what would happen if the noise was louder than expected and whether the city could do anything about it.

2026-10-27 · The Sydney Morning Herald

‘You wouldn’t want your grandmother living there’: Rinehart’s acoustic expert grilled over Perth helipad noise claims · assertive framing

Claims (28 extracted, 5 hedged)

engineer → hire → it

On Tuesday in the State Administrative Tribunal, Rinehart’s Ord Street Holdings solicitors challenged the City of Perth’s refusal to allow a helipad atop Hancock Prospecting’s West Perth headquarters. asserted

solicitors → challenge → headquarters

The council rejected the proposal in December, mainly because of noise concerns. asserted

council → reject → concerns

On the second day of the SAT hearing, City of Perth barrister Tim Houweling questioned acoustic engineer Luke Zoontjens about the independence of his assessment and the “instructions” he received before preparing a report supporting the application. asserted

he → question → application

Zoontjens told the tribunal the project team had provided proposed flight paths and emailed him information from an “experienced helicopter pilot”. asserted

team → tell → pilot

He had not met the pilot or independently verified the information. asserted

He → meet → information

“As far as your report is concerned, it firstly has adopted some of the information given to you by someone else,” Houweling put to Zoontjens. asserted

Houweling → concern → Zoontjens

The barrister then turned to Zoontjens’ noise predictions, pressing him on what would happen if the noise was louder than expected and whether the city could do anything about it. uncertain

city → turn → it

Zoontjens acknowledged no helicopter noise testing had been conducted at the proposed site. asserted

testing → acknowledge → site

His predictions were based on modelling and aircraft data. asserted

predictions → base → data

“Once approved there are no methods of enforcing the noise levels that are omitted?” Houweling asked. asserted

Houweling → approve → levels

“You can measure it … but yes to my understanding you can’t enforce it,” Zoontjens responded. asserted

Zoontjens → measure → it

The tribunal heard predicted maximum noise levels at some nearby buildings approached 90 decibels. asserted

levels → hear → decibels

Houweling questioned what that would mean for people living and working in the area, suggesting that at 100 decibels, people standing a metre apart would need to shout to hear each other. asserted

people → question → other

Zoontjens agreed the helicopter would affect the amenity of nearby properties and said it was “absolutely possible” residents could experience rattling objects and windows. uncertain

residents → agree → objects

But he disputed suggestions noise would reach 100 decibels in the residential area, pointing to modelling that predicted levels of between 79 and 82 decibels in parts of the surrounding neighbourhood. asserted

that → dispute → neighbourhood

The questioning became more pointed when Houweling suggested Zoontjens would not want his own grandmother living beneath the proposed flight path. “You wouldn’t want your grandmother living there,” Houweling said. uncertain

Houweling → become → path

To which Zoontjens responded: “I’d live there”. asserted

I → respond → which

Houweling also wanted to know whether the engineer had ever questioned why Hancock needed a helicopter to land on the roof of its West Perth headquarters. asserted

Hancock → want → headquarters

“No,” Zoontjens replied. asserted

Zoontjens → reply → ?

He said his task was to assess the helipad’s noise impact, rather than the reason for it. asserted

task → say → it

Zoontjens also did not know the distance to the nearest mine site, nor whether the helicopter would be used to travel there. asserted

helicopter → know → site

Houweling suggested he had been instructed to “justify” the noise impacts of introducing a helicopter into the area. uncertain

he → suggest → area

“‘Justify’ is probably a harsh word, but predict,” Zoontjens responded. asserted

Zoontjens → justify → ?

The hearing, before SAT member Judge Henry Jackson, was scheduled to run for two days but was adjourned part-heard on Tuesday afternoon. asserted

hearing → schedule → afternoon

Ord Street Holdings’ barrister, Grant Donaldson, KC, told the tribunal his instructing solicitor was unable to attend due to a personal health issue. asserted

solicitor → tell → issue

Donaldson said the hearing had already run over time and suggested another day and a half to two days would be needed to finish the matter. uncertain

day → say → matter

The hearing will resume on a date yet to be fixed. asserted

hearing → resume → date