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

October 27, 2026 — 5:05pm

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.

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.

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

Zoontjens told the tribunal the project team had provided proposed flight paths and emailed him information from an “experienced helicopter pilot”. He had not met the pilot or independently verified the 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.

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.

Zoontjens acknowledged no helicopter noise testing had been conducted at the proposed site. His predictions were based on modelling and aircraft data.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

“No,” Zoontjens replied.

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

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

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

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

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

Ord Street Holdings’ barrister, Grant Donaldson, KC, told the tribunal his instructing solicitor was unable to attend due to a personal health 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. The hearing will resume on a date yet to be fixed.

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