One group won the Rinehart v Wright case, and it wasn’t the brawling billionaires

April 15, 2026 — 3:58pm

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Who owns Hope Downs? It isn’t yet a Netflix series, but it has all the elements: corporate intrigue, duelling billionaires, money-clawing descendants and decades of bitter court battles over the vast wealth stemming from one of the most lucrative iron ore mines in the world. It has even ensnared one of Australia’s mining giants, Rio Tinto.

But much like the generational brawl between the extended Wright and Rinehart families’ beneficiaries of this massive iron ore fortune, the legal verdict was as messy as it was mixed.

Each side claimed victory in a case so drawn out that it has outlived the careers of two judges, with the current Justice Jennifer Smith suggesting that any appeals could extend beyond her retirement.

It will probably see out the careers of many of the lawyers that could have funded holiday homes and yachts and their kids’........

© Brisbane Times