Good fences make good neighbours.

The enduring words of poet Robert Frost may not be familiar to mining billionaire and poetry aficionado Gina Rinehart, or to disability pensioner Kathy Pope, but the fence that runs between their respective properties on the state’s Northern Tablelands is no good.

Kathy Pope is suing Gina Rinehart over a dispute over 12 kilometres of fencing.© Benham Fisher/ Supplied

Just how bad the fence is, and who is liable for what work at what cost, will be left to the NSW Supreme Court to decide, after Pope launched legal proceedings against Rinehart personally.

It is set to be the ultimate David versus Goliath fence dispute, pitting a hobby farmer with no means to afford legal representation against Australia’s richest person, worth an estimated $38 billion and with a legion of top-tier lawyers at her disposal.

“This isn’t just about the 800-odd animals I’ve lost over the years. This is about a commitment to finish the fence that was started years ago,” Pope said from her home in Kingstown, west of Armidale.

“We live by a code in the bush of respect and everyone pulling together. And I want that back.”

At issue is a boundary fence of more than 12 kilometres that separates what is currently Pope’s 200-odd stock from Rinehart’s vast Sundown Valley cattle station that surrounds her.

On Pope’s side are disputed claims over the need for exclusion fencing, the whereabouts of her lost sheep, cattle, goats and wild deer, and the mysterious disappearance of 14 Maremma guardian dogs.

On Rinehart’s side, there are said to be concerns about the constant movement of animals over the boundary, as well as the issue of feral goats and pigs digging under the fence, and the occasional need to treat Pope’s animals for disease.

Rinehart’s office declined to comment on the stoush, but it has refuted Pope’s claims against her.

“This dispute is a dividing fences dispute between Ms Pope’s hobby farm and Pastoral Properties (SV) Pty Ltd,” said a company spokesman. “We reject the allegations made by Ms Pope, but as the matter is before the courts, it is inappropriate for us to comment further.”

Relations between the two farmers were not always bad. Pope was delighted when two years after she bought her Kingstown farm, Rinehart arrived in the district in 2018.

“I was one of her biggest fans at the time. And here she was, my new next door neighbour,” Pope said.

Rinehart’s purchase of the Sundown Valley cattle farm from the Statham family, for an undisclosed price estimated from title records at close to $100 million for the land, has since expanded to include other farming interests in the Northern Tablelands.

Hancock Prospecting’s total farming operations across the district total 42,000 hectares, making Rinehart one of the largest wagyu beef operators in the country.

Pope preceded Rinehart by two years, buying her 157 hectares in 2016 for $220,000.

Pope says that soon after Rinehart arrived, and given the need for extensive fencing work, she offered to pay for the materials as long as Rinehart would cover the labour and contribute to the use of any machinery and materials they had on site.

It was a verbal agreement, Pope said.

From 2020 to early 2021, Pope said she sourced 12 kilometres of new and second-hand fencing materials, financed by a $100,000 loan from the NSW Rural Assistance Authority, and with $20,000 from her own savings.

In Pope’s estimation, the $120,000 would have been enough to cover the then-cost of half the required fencing.

As far as Pope was concerned, the exclusion fencing was required around her 157-hectare property, Allawah, but also her neighbours’ property, known as Allawah 2, owned by her good friend Mary Kakaroubas.

Sundown Valley was purchased by Hancock Prospecting in 2018 from the Statham family.© Benham Fisher

Pope has long agisted her stock on the Kakaroubas property in exchange for the maintenance of fences and tracks across the hilly, rugged countryside.

It is a long-standing agreement that has suited both owners well. Kakaroubas lives in Sydney, and her family visits only once or twice a year, which enables Pope to farm across the combined 630 hectares while also keeping the family up to date on any developments.

For that reason, Kakaroubas has joined in the legal proceedings as a plaintiff alongside Pope, but not as an active participant.

By 2022, Pope says work was under way, and within a few weeks, about 800 metres of exclusion fencing was done.

Pope said she even received about $25,000 in financial contributions towards the materials from Hancock Prospecting.

But in late 2022, work stopped.

Why it stopped is unclear.

The following year, Pope said she was told at a site meeting that there was no binding agreement that required Hancock Prospecting to undertake any fencing works.

Kathy Pope on her Allawah farm alongside one of the damaged boundary fences.© Benham Fisher

Hancock Prospecting denies Pope’s claims over what was agreed by way of fencing.

Pope wasn’t having it. “I’m not the sort of person who can let things slide if I think something’s wrong. It’s just not in my nature, which can cause me all sorts of problems at times.”

Pope set about trying to contact Rinehart to let her know what was happening on her farm.

“I called her office, and I wrote to her because I thought if she knew what was happening in her name, on her farm, she would want to set it right,” Pope said.

“But after the sixth letter, I was warned to stop calling and writing. They called me a serial pest.”

Instead, Pope said she was directed to send all her fencing requests and inquiries to Hancock group lawyers.

Pope fruitlessly appealed to others for help, such as her local MP Barnaby Joyce.

Through it all, there were offers to settle the dispute from both sides.

Hancock Prospecting is understood to have offered to settle on multiple occasions on undisclosed terms, but with no success.

And Pope has made settlement offers of her own. According to the latest, she would receive $10 million in a deal that includes exclusion fencing surrounding both Allawah properties, $4.9 million for any future economic losses, $4.25 million in damages, and some 200 hectares of Hancock land surrounding her residence.

It was also rejected.

“I felt like I had no other option than to go to court,” Pope said.

“I’m left paying a loan to pay for a fence that isn’t there, and the ongoing issue of stock coming in from their side of the boundary and my stock roaming out.”

Pope’s legal proceedings were initially aided by the local North and Northwest Community Legal Service with assistance in writing one legal letter, but she has been self-represented since.

Pope said she has also approached legal firms and litigation funders in the hopes they would represent her, but with no luck.

Given the claim is likely to be in excess of the $100,000 limit of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, days before Christmas, Pope launched her legal suit against Rinehart in the Supreme Court.

The hearing is set to be heard before Justice David Hammerschlag on February 5.