elemist

From the Reddit thread - http://imgur.com/a/fWQBY

Maybe not in the near future whilst it's so public, but once the media circus dies down a bit it will just be another ride. A new generation of young kids with no knowledge or emotional tie to the incident will just think it's another ride. After a few years of safe operation i would say most people would be fine on it.

Maybe it's just being so far removed from the situation on the other side of the country, but pending the investigations i would probably go on it again. The fact it's operated safely for so long, means this is most likely just a tragic set of events that came together. Assuming a thorough investigation is completed and steps put in place to prevent it happening again, then it should be fine. You could compare it to air travel. Freak accidents occur due to a certain set of circumstances, the accident is investigated thoroughly and a set of recommendations are produced to prevent it from re-occuring again.

I'm sure the park will recover eventually. The rides fate i thing will very much depend on the cause of the incident. If the park / ride is found at fault then there's a good chance it will be removed. Especially if it's going to require any kind of major funding to improve/rectify the issues. If it's deemed the incident was caused by the riders then the only reason to close the ride would be either out of respect, or if any safety improvements are required that are excessively expensive.

What an odd turn of phrase from QAS.. "suffered injuries that were incompatible with living". My 2c - terrible tragedy, but i can't see any way in which this results in the closure of Dreamworld. Even if worst case they were found at fault for the incident. I honestly believe we have some of the safest parks in the world, unfortunately when a few worst case scenarios line up for a perfect storm, an incident like this can occur. I would think the park will be closed for ~ a week whilst initial investigations occur. The area around the ride will be fenced off whilst investigations continue. I think attendance will drop significantly for the next few months, then once the incident investigations are released and the coverage goes away things will slowly return to normal. The fate of the ride i guess will depend largely on the cause of the accident. If it's found to be a design floor (unlikely due to its age and years of operation), or an expensive to rectify problem then i would guess it will be closed. If it was rider error then i would expect there will be a number of safety changes and the ride will reopen. As sad as it is, i also suspect the ages of the riders to make a difference in peoples reactions. An innocent child/teenager compared to an adult is just different again. It's still a terrible tragedy, but i guess the adults can weigh the decision to go a ride more than a child maybe? I don't know..

Odd that there's no statements or comments from Dreamworld on either Facebook or Twitter. Their website appears to be pretty much down due to the load, though when it did load briefly it was the normal site.

QPS Media Unit ‏@QPSmedia 1m1 minute ago We are not holding a press conference at 4pm. We will advise media when this time is set. We are also not confirming anything further.

ABC Live Stream - http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/ They did just announce QLD POL have tweeted the press conference won't be happening at 4.

Merlin were found at fault and fined 5 million pounds. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/sep/27/alton-towers-owner-fined-smiler-rollercaster-crash

Very cool to see historical things being re purposed. Gives the theming so much more meaning!

Is that the old train from around the paddle boat lake?

It will be interesting to see what it's replaced with. As someone else mentioned it's quite a high volume ride with a quick unload / load cycle. It was always a go to for us when the park was busy, as you could pretty much guarantee to be on it within about 15 minutes even on a busy day. It will be interesting to see how the park handles the capacity this season. There's a few volume soaking activities that's been removed - IE the paddle boats, the castle and now BR. Whilst not exactly thrilling (in the case of the castle/paddle boats), it was a 15 - 20 minute activity for people to do which could absorb 15 - 20 people each at a time. Considering they were hitting peak capacity and closing the entry during the last season, removing a ride without adding anything to handle the additional capacity could cause a few problems. On the flip side though, with no new attractions maybe the crowds won't be as large this year? I guess when you think about it, it sits in a awkward category really - it's not an overly thrilling/scary ride like abyss or the rampage. At the same time so much has been invested in the kids area that it's no longer required for them either. So combine that with the age and one would assume high costs in maintaining and running the ride and you can understand why it's been cut. Props to AW for removing it ASAP though rather than just letting it sit. I wonder thinking about the layout and area now available whether there's plans to fence of the entire section and start working on Mi3 sooner rather than later? Would certainly explain the decision to remove it immediately and this late in the break. Correct with Turbo Mountain - but it was more the concept/idea of removing one coaster and replacing with a much better one. The Car Park has been under construction for a while now, and the season past entrance etc are relatively minor things in comparison to removing something like BR when you think about it. I'm all for a lazy river - would certainly work very well and suit Perth's climate as well. That said its an odd location for a water ride given it's nowhere near the existing pools/wet areas. So would mean either extensive work to get plant services from the existing locations to it, or high costs to build all new plant. Plus from a visitor point of things, it's a bit of a hike from there across to the pools/slides (in the scheme of the whole park being 5 minutes from end to end of course). My thoughts for a lazy river type ride would be at the back of the current pool/slides where the animal park currently is.

It's a shame to see such an iconic ride being removed. Have many happy memories of the bounty's revenge, going back when i was a young kid visiting the park for the first time. On the plus side, as they've said it's making way for Mi3 which is a good thing. Hopefully just like removing another classic - Turbo Mountain - gave us Abyss - we'll end up with something just as good It seems unusually late in the season to be removing the ride though?

Wowsers.. it's certainly fast! Looks like it will be quite a solid ride

Yep - i agree with you to an extent RE the shade. The ideal situation would be to have part of the width covered or at points along the way to have some shade. In the heat of the perth summer you would absolutely bake in the full sun, sunscreen or not. I would anticipate the water being heated when it got cooler - otherwise it wouldn't get used as much. Maybe they could conduit the water underneath the path to the hill and circulate the cold water through it! Not sure about the contamination issue - at the price of drinks people sure would be avoiding to spill anything! It would be something that would have to be controlled. Last thing you want would be drunk people everywhere, but surely there's enough sensible adults around who could enjoy a cold beer whilst floating around the river.

My 2c.. Lazy river is a great idea, personally would like nothing better than relaxing and floating along a river. Would need to be shaded appropriately, could even have some small rapids. I can't see it working so much as a transport system, as others have said its just not practical in a park where you have a mix of wet and dry rides. I would also love to see a swim up bar as part of it for the adults. One thing i've noted of recent times is the closure of the smallish casual activites - things like the paddle boats and the train. Only small things, but its just another way to entertain 20 - 30 people for 10 minutes at a time. Mark - have you ever thought about having something like the dive in movies at wet n wild? On some of the hot summer nights, it would be great to have something like this in the pool. If you positioned the screen right, you could probably have people picnicking on the grassed areas too.

Yep - but as already mentioned it's a risky issue sending belongings down the slide. It introduces debris and slows down sending people, which is the primary purpose. On the other hand you have a conveyor belt carrying up rafts, then returning empty to the bottom. Appreciate there's mechanical equipment on the underside, but surely there would be room for a small box or i'm sure something could be engineered. Adventure Worlds problem is not unique. It's the same issue around the world in every park.

I've often wondered why the raft conveyers aren't put to use for moving things to the bottom of the slides.

Had to come back and comment that it really is great to see suggestions and ideas getting implemented on the fly immediately, rather than at the glacial melting pace that most larger parks operate. Don't see anyway you'll keep people happy with that hill. Stairs would be just as bad to climb in my opinion, and as mentioned there is a set of stairs that gets you most of the way to the top already! Might have to bring back the old motorized scooters that used to take you and your toboggan to the top of the hill

My money is this being a power play.. we might find one of the existing parks ends up with a new owner. No better way to bring them to the table than threaten to open up a bigger and better competitor next door.

I don't see why they couldn't put shade structures over it. Realistically it's what maintenance buggys and maybe a ute or two that would be going up the hill? The average person stands as tall or taller than the height of a ute, so a suitable covering high enough for people to walk under should be fine. It wouldn't need to be the full length of the road - just suitable spaced to allow you to run from one shade spot to the other. Alternatively they could build a shaded path alongside the road.

They get you half way there in the shade If i recall correctly there's grass on the corner of the little offroad to freefall and then if you hug the limestone wall there used to be about half a metre of shaded path which was cooler.

Thought it might still be an issue, even the white line used to get very hot in middle of summer. I think the only option really is providing shade over the path - we used to always go up the stares from the back of the grassed area that come out in front of the roller coaster to avoid most of the road. Or take the chair lift up. What do the parks over east use? I don't recall having a burning feet issue at either wet n wild or white water world?

Usually misuse of a season pass is things like loaning it to friends to use, or the old passing the pass through the fence trick.

Snake theme looks great I do want to say a big congrats to Mark and the whole AW team - i've been going to the park for over 20 years, its great to see so not only much needed redevelopment - but the exceptionally high quality of everything being done. From painting and signage to the food outlets & cabanas, everything has improved so much over the past few years. I really hope the people of Perth vote with their wallets and keep coming back. You mentioned resurfacing the road that runs up the hill - the soles of my feet say thank you! Are there plans to increase the shade or change the surface in any way? That hill has a long history of burning the bottom of peoples feet, and that was back when it was mainly the roller coaster and tabogans/monorail up there, on which you could at least wear shoes. Now being the water slide entrance i can see a whole lot more of that happening. Lastly hears hoping the viewing platform makes its way back into the plans at some point in the future as that would be a great addition too