DaptoFunlandGuy

I don't think we can rush to judge. Mental health is a long game. It has many steps, and the 'suing for compensation' step is wayyy down the line. Usually a court or other arbitration method won't enter into discussion of suitable compensation until the condition is treated and stabilised. The usual path includes: Injury (which in the case of mental health can take months to manifest into something recognisable that you seek help for). Medical attention - initially a GP is sought (although in some workplace cases, where they have counsellors involved, this step may be skipped Referral - The GP or Counsellor makes recommendations that the person be referred to a more qualified person - usually psychiatrist \ psychologist. The specialist assesses the person. At some stage between GP and this step, a medical opinion is made, determining whether the injury is work related, and if so, a workcover medical certificate is issued to provide the employer. The specialist recommends treatment - this can include counselling, medication, adjustments to duties etc. The workplace HR machine switches into action on receipt of the workcover certificate. Either a dedicated HR person, or a contracted 'rehab consultant' is involved to manage the case. The employer's workers compensation insurer is notified of the injury and their team gets involved too. The insurer or relevant party needs to determine whether the claim is compensable - is it genuinely work related. They may require the worker to attend different ("independent") doctors or specialists to validate the opinions of the treating practitioners. Until this happens, the worker is usually having to manage their condition using their own entitlements for sick leave etc, although some employers may allow use of 'special' leave arrangements so that the worker isn't out of pocket during diagnosis prior to the claim being accepted. If the insurer accepts the claim, they take over responsibility for costs. Some doctors won't provide treatment or assessment for a workers compensation case without upfront payment - something most insurers won't do until they've agreed to accept liability. This can make it hard for the worker to get the treatment they need whilst their income is depressed from taking time off \ exhausting leave etc. The case manager will work with the insurer, the doctors, and the worker to determine what work the worker can do, what adjustments are needed, or alternate duties while treatment continues. This is ongoing from the moment the workcover certificate is issued, and the goal of the insurer, workplace etc, is to have the worker continue to work 'as normally as they can' whilst the case progresses. If all the doctors in this case were satisfied that the worker could continue to perform some, or all of their duties at Dreamworld whilst the case progressed, he would be obligated to do so with whatever adjustments to duties they felt were appropriate. This involves the worker in these discussions, so a bit of negotiation happens here - ultimately though, if he can work, then he is required to do so. When the medical experts, including the treating doctor and the insurer's medical team are satisfied that further treatment is unlikely to improve the current situation, they determine that the injury is stabilised. At this point, the lasting effects of the original injury can be quantified - what impact has this injury had on the worker's career - what can they no longer do? what effect does this have on their ability to generate the level of income they had prior to the injury? This is the point where a level of lump sum compensation can be determined. It is almost certain (my opinion only) that the insurer made an out of court settlement offer as soon as the stabilisation determination was made. It was almost certainly low-balled, and any halfway-sane person would have sought legal representation to advise them. Their legal advisor would have advised them to decline the settlement offer, and the next step is to lodge a case through the courts. This guy hasn't sat on his laurels for four years. He's probably been through hell in this time. And while it has affected him, the affects probably weren't something that would prevent him from his duties. I personally think that anyone who thinks the delay in lodging this claim is unreasonable probably hasn't been through the compensation claim machine for themselves, and has no idea what they are talking about.

D'ya reckon they'd fit in a 7x4 box trailer? Looking at the lift hill, these boards aren't present. The timber is LVL (laminated veneer lumber) manufactured for formwork for pouring concrete, and is meant to be stored undercover when not in use. They're branded and painted for identification on site rather than for looks, and - just my opinion - this seems like a temporary usage as barriers for fall protection. It appears they've put a length across the top of the first drop to prevent falls there too. It would be cool if they had some sort of accent around the track as it would highlight the twists and turns throughout the course - but i don't think this is it.

You're normally pretty legless anyway

Village roadshow parks are overall going to be more forgiving than Dreamworld. Most of the Dreamworld issues come down to the fact that the seatbelts (supplemental restraints) are shorter than they used to be. Giant drop will be touch-and-go, based on EXACTLY where you carry the weight around your hips. Operators on GD are good at helping you get it tighter if needed, but if that seatbelt won't go in, you can't ride. If Giant drop is a close fit, don't even bother with The Claw. The seatbelts are WAY shorter than GD, and despite the harnesses locking in on much larger folk, if the seatbelt doesn't reach, you won't ride. Escape from Madagascar is in between Claw and Giant Drop, so if you can do Claw, EFM is fine. If GD is a struggle, be prepared for EFM to be tougher still. I've had no issues with anything else at Dreamworld, but i've not ridden Shockwave since the bondage harnesses went in, and i've never done Panda. Sky Voyager is quite accommodating. As for Movie World - If you make it on Giant Drop, Pretty much everything at Movie World will be fine. Rivals is the closest you'll come to not fitting - and again, the operators are good at helping you fit in if it is close. Scooby is the only other potential issue. The lapbar has several clicks before it locks. The front seat has more leg room. If you carry it in the tummy, lift it upand let the lapbar go under it so it presses on your legs, not the stomach. You'll know when you're all locked in because all the white lights on the operator's console will stop flashing and just be steady white lights. Operators will, again, do everything they can to get you to fit. They know all the tricks, they'll try all they can, and they're very discreet if you can't lock in. Don't be embarrassed if you don't fit. I'm a bit taller and a bit heavier than you, and Claw is the only thing i've not been able to ride. So try everything, let the operators help get you stapled in if you need it, and enjoy what you can!

Well clearly, the whole ride is down because the ride photo screens are broken and are away getting repaired. These are imported screens from germany, and parts are being delayed through customs. Plus the border lockdown is preventing the german technician from coming to Australia to fix it - because local tradespeople don't have the expertise to fix these specialised devices. They're not made of wood you know!

Sea World's Sea Lion arena faces north, guaranteeing practically all-day sunshine to virtually everyone in the front rows up to more than halfway in the grandstand. The same goes for the thunder lake seating area, also north, also full sun virtually all day. Dolphin cove faces east - a pleasurable experience in full sun for the morning keeper talks and shows. HWSD faces west, copping a big ol eyeful of sun in any show post-midday. Its fucking queensland. you're going to get sun. its going to be hot. The advantage is there is somewhere to sit down for a few minutes, so I doubt people are gonna complain too loudly about sitting in the sun for 10-15 minutes (especially when there is a waterpark LITERALLY behind it).

* @Gazza intensifies *

Actually i've been discussing this with other folks interested in this sort of thing, and it turns out there may be another reason for the differences in bracing - Beast had a large concrete anchor on the inside of the two large curves, and had numerous support cables anchored to it that extended up to various points around the curves. I'm lead to believe this method is not employed by gravity group \ leviathan, so this may be the main explanation for the differences rather than the number of track crossovers.

ok, but what do you really think of the media?

Putting aside the incident on triple vortex which sounds like a nothing event, A near-miss crush is hardly 'minor or slightly unusual'. Any action involving moving a large piece of machinery in such a way that it could potentially fall and injure someone requires risk management - with the best and safest course of action being eliminating the crush risk by ensuring that no person is within the fall zone during the lift. Even if it occurred at a time when a worker HAS to be in the fall zone (for example, while bolting \ unbolting the ride arm) there are ways and means of securing things to ensure they are in a fail-safe position. WHSQ will obviously determine whether it was procedure that was lacking, or whether it was an individual worker not following procedure. But either way, that isn't minor.

I wonder what sort of crowd area they're planning - temporary scaffold grandstand? lay down some bitumen and temporary fence? leave it dirt and cancel the show when it rains? timber planks on breeze blocks with every second plank removed (for social distancing and to make it lighter, of course).... See, if they put a little effort into the crowd area, then the arena becomes something that they can reuse - a day or two of earthworks and they can change from monster trucks to freestyle motocross to livestock muster to fireworks display to temporary inflatable slides over summer - the possibilities are endless... heck they could even put a lazy river in there!

I mentioned the bracing on this one being quite beefy. Leviathan is said to be 32 metres high, according to RCDB. For comparison, Bush Beast was 27.5 metres high. Just a comparison - i understand why Leviathan has so much more bracing, just giving a visual to those who don't see many woodies.

Shimmer and Shine were spotted at Sea World about a month ago, so I doubt its in response to Bluey - but the marketing push may have something to do with the bluey announcement.

Maybe they were going for a '3d' image? (its a joke guys, settle down). Nah, the only logic i could arrive at was to reinforce that the thing you were seeing was 'new' - by reinforcing it with a billboard. But yeah, the logic on putting it on a billboard that was literally sitting right next to the thing was just dumb.

That's probably a good idea, since the last one was something about 'making fully six memories'...

Honestly the brand and name sucks. The work experience kid could have come up with a better theme sitting on the shitter scrolling through the 'Gram. Nothing's ever been confirmed about the suicide squad theme, but i think we're as close to confirming it as we'll ever get. The joker head is an awesome fixture, and the position of the coaster grabs attention. But nobody in the park that i've ever heard has called if DCRH or any variant - its always 'joker coaster' (or just 'rivals' amongst enthusiasts) and its a missed opportunity and a weird one at that. I heard that the BGH takeover has been voted in - maybe we'll see some changes at Village parks moving forward... Maybe DCR can be rethemed \ renamed just a little. keep the joker, but lose the rest of the gang and make it more like what Arkham was. Get The Hamill to do some new voices for the station and have at it.

You're not. Because its your opinion. I only had an opportunity to view this this afternoon. I found it a little weird, but overall, I liked the imagery and message it presented. I don't think the 'audience' specifically "wants" a POV. Most of the 'audience' wouldn't even know what 'POV' was. This video tells me there's three new rides coming to sea world, they're part of a new land, and they look pretty cool. And i'm sure that the majority of the GP (other than those who say "why are they making it out of wood? so old. what a death trap!") would go 'cool. maybe we need to go to sea world soon. Respect to your opinion @Slick, but i'm not sure you can look at material like this without a content creator's critical eye anymore and just see it the way a normie would. Just my opinion.

A nice 'nutshell' article. Says it all really. The only questions to ask are - which order will they open, and how many trips am I making next year?

Yeah, um - a couple issues with that....

It was running during White Christmas, but the camera timing was off and missing the front row of every boat.

Don't we already have a discussion on this somewhere?

Even Auto-Correct doesn't give a shit about the 73rd most popular superhero.

The only reason I think there has been any speculation in this regard is that the mother also emphatically stated that there was 'blood everywhere' and the water was 'full of blood' (i'm misquoting, but its the general gist, and I really don't care that much). Now the thing that strikes me is the report I read stated it was the park's (female) medical staff (nurse\paramedic\first aid) that suggested it could have been her period. Now - I know there aren't many on the boards here, but i've spoken to some ACTUAL females ( 😮 ) who are medical professionals, and their first thoughts on this were that for the amount of blood present to be mistaken for a menstrual cycle calls into question the actual amount of bleeding. Yes, the injury is a terrible, regrettable injury. I can't imagine the pain involved, both in the incident and the resulting recovery - but the many details we've seen\read about this injury are, at least, inflammatory. By all accounts now, I accept this isn't necessarily an uncommon injury, but the contradictions and inflammatory language irks me. that's all.

Well that's disappointing. The original concept always struck me as being either very Brazillian Carnival (Portuguese) or New Orleans Mardi Gras (French), and switching to 'day of the dead' just hits a nerve for me. Day of the Dead is Mexican, (Spanish) and really has no connection to Carnivale, IMO. And given the various incarnations of Day of the dead \ Dia De Los Muertos is in November, it's not even the right season for it. Next they'll be moving Halloween to April.

Yeah ok, don't bring facts into a good tongue-in-cheek slagging off about DC World Warner Bros Movie World. Fair enough, we've got an old west superhero in the universe who Awesome! Seriously though - they don't need more DC. Plus the Josh Brolin film was so memorable, i'd never heard of it. No wonder he went to Marvel. ETA: lol. it was nominated for 5 awards, and won only one - the Houston Film Critics' Society 'Worst Picture' award. Other nominations include: Alliance of Women Film Journalists' EDA Special Mention Award - Hall of Shame Houston Film Critics' Golden Schmoes Worst Movie of the Year Razzie award for worst Actress Razzie award for Worst Screen Couple \ Worst Screen Ensemble.