Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, has done all she can to settle the family feud with her two adult estranged children - John Hancock and Hope Rinehart.

After she cut off their financial support and then vested the date of the family trust, Ms Rinehart eventually gave in to the demands of another estranged daughter, Bianca Rinehart Welker, and even offered John to appoint a co-trustee, but John is not about to surrender.

Journalist Adele Ferguson, who wrote a book about the feuding Rineharts - Australia's equivalent of Dynasty, the popular American TV soap opera in the 1980s that featured an uber rich but feuding family - traces the roots of John's insistence on pursuing the court case he and his two female siblings filed against their mum.

The story goes back to the spring of 1992 when John was summoned by his grandfather - who established the trust fund for his grandchildren - who asked him to fly from Boston to Perth, Australia, to give his deathbed last wish to his only male grandson.

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Mr Hancock was 82 then, battling kidney, heart and lung complications and had a falling out with his daughter, leading Ms Rinehart to move her brood to Texas. Ms Rinehart disagreed with her father's decision to marry a younger woman - Rose Porteous - and provide her a substantial part of his wealth in the form of a jet, cars, travel, jewelry and a mansion in Perth.

Quoting his grandfather, John recalled his words, saying, "You've got to be strong as you will need to run everything one day."

John was referring to iron ore business Hancock Prospecting which his grandfather found and is now controlled by his mum.

Although he did not rebel against his mum immediately, he and his two sisters eventually came to the realisation that Gina was allegedly deceptive, manipulative and disgraceful in the manner she managed the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust, leading to their filing in September 2011 a court case to have their mum removed as trustee.

"From the start I've said we are doing this to carry out the intentions of my grandfather, and for fairness to everyone," Ms Ferguson quoted John.

Ms Welker dropped out of the lawsuit because of the pressure of her broken marriage and financial disaster, accepting allegedly $200 million as settlement fee from her mum.

Last week, Ms Rinehart asked the court to have the case under arbitration instead of battling her own children in court.

Again quoting his grandfather, John pointed out, "He did not want Gina to have everything or for her to dictate our lives. My grandfather would be greatly troubled. He did not want his discoveries and life's work to be a source of problems, but rather a great start ad foundation for us, his grandchildren, in the way his work supported my other in her early year. He was generous and gave her a third of the company after she was born."

Ms Rinehart insisted none of her three children have the capacity, skill, knowledge, experience, judgment or responsible work ethic to manage Hancock Prospecting.

Ms Rinehart, who is training her youngest daughter, Ginia, to run the company, could use Hancock's financial record as proof that under her management, she was able to grow the company from millions of dollars to its estimated current value of $22 billion.