elemist

Thanks for the correction - i was heading out the door so only took a quick glance at the articles. Dunno where i got the upside down impression from My apologies for the incorrectness. With regards to the media statement. I understand he's not part of a media team, but he is the General Manager of a major theme park attraction. Thus part of his job is as a spokesperson whether he likes it or not. For what it's worth, i don't think he did a bad job per say - just that there was room for improvement. Towards the end when he was answering questions he was much more relaxed. It's not just about this small event today, but about being ready for any event at any time. Be it a bad circumstance like the deaths at DreamWorld, other critical incidents or even good news / general promotion. It's something that seems small at the time, but these interviews and statements have real world impact - not just in the news - but in the stock markets etc. This isn't some small time 5 person businesses thrown into the limelight on short notice, but a major theme park. If he as the general manager isn't a great public speaker, then employ someone to do it on there behalf. A pretty good example of high ranking officials doing great media interviews can been see in some of the recent plane crashes. You could make the same comments about them not being part of a media team etc, they're also thrown on the spot and have to make statements at short notice. Mark from Adventure World also interviewed very well in the few interviews i've seen with him. Obviously a bit different being positive events and planned, but he was relaxed and confident - he just came off as a great person and thus i have a good impression of the park itself. With regards to the written statements - understand they've been vetted and approved by multiple people, but the statement he read was pretty straight forward and yes i would have preferred he spend 10 minutes reading through it a couple of times before fronting the media. He can still glance at it, but head down reading just isn't a great sight. Really - today was an example where a strong public speaker could have turned around the news to an extent. He should have been touting some of the comments that were made here - about how this was a safety stop, and a great example of the safety systems working as designed. He could have commended the staff and emergency services about how well they had worked together to resolve the situation safely. He could have also educated the media a bit in the facts that these are events that occur as part of standard operations, the ride didn't break - instead its detected an anomaly and erred on the side of caution.

Playing devils advocate for a minute.. anything that involves members of the general public being "rescued" from hanging upside down on a ride by emergency services is indeed news. Hanging upside down for lengthy periods of time can be quite uncomfortable if your not used to it. I expect we'll see references to the DreamWorld tragedy for another year or two before it drops off peoples radar completely. That asides - whether this needed breaking news and live crosses etc.. slow news day maybe? Lastly - i wish these parks would give their CEO/General Managers some basic media training. I'm sure it was just nerves, and it's easy for me to criticize from behind a keyboard, but he didn't exactly exude confidence. Head down reading straight off a piece of paper a few sentences that he could surely have memorized. Once he got going and answering questions he was a little better, though still a little awkward.

I don't get it - do you need a license to drive or not? From the Rules sign - "Must hold a valid drivers license to drive the vehicle" From the wall - "no license required Age 7+"

Well clearly this is either photoshopped or we've just found what the DreamWorld staff who would normally be operating the closed part of the park are up to Really - a negative vote?? Do people not recognize sarcasm any more??

yes... "facts"

The 7 million dollar figure comes from most of the news reports which i believe is just the initial $300k per day loss x the length of the closure and then rounded to make it a nice number for reporting. No idea how that 300k figure was calculated or how accurate it is.

So your independent research involved looking at the last financial years results.. hmm seams pretty definitive then. Without the exact figures and information which would be confidential to Dream World until released in their results, there's no way to know exactly what the damage is. Just because gross revenue is down, it doesn't automatically result in gross profit dropping. Whilst not exactly 1:1 - the fact half the park is not operating would be reducing overheads considerably. I would also hope they had some form of business continuity insurance in place that will pay out and cover things like staffing costs and a contribution towards the lack of sales. I expect things like insurance increases etc would not yet have been incurred. To my knowledge there's been no formal outcome from the investigation released. Which means there's no at fault determination that can be used. Well.. yes..

Just noticed Dreamworld trending on Facebook again with most of the news agencies releasing articles today about how quiet Dream World is. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/dreamworld-a-virtual-ghost-town-two-months-after-death-of-four-patrons/news-story/43dc56d8bddd80634618f251c1273c53 It's not really surprising given most of the thrill rides are still closed - yet ticket prices have only dropped a little. Without going all "POP"/Doom and gloom, I do wonder at what point the park becomes unviable? They took a big hit being closed for so long, and then visitor numbers are well down over what's generally their busiest time of year. End of next week most people will be back to work - so out of state numbers will start to drop. In 2 - 3 weeks it will be end of school holidays and everyone will be back to school. It's almost to the point where i wonder if the rides being closed is causing more harm than good. IE rather than reinforcing their commitment to safety, it starts prompting questions about why it's taking so long. I mean these are rides that up until the accident occurred were supposedly 100% safe and completely operational. Personally i can understand that there's obviously limited people experienced enough to carry out these audits, and thus things can only move so fast. I would assume most of these people would have been on leave for Xmas/New Year the past week or so as well. Physical tests etc all take time and are dependent on equipment availability and the likes. However the people at home aren't going to look at it like that..

Assuming this is correct - it makes it even stranger. Why not wait until the replacement theming is ready before ripping out the existing stuff. Unless thats exactly what they've done - but there was some delay with the new theming and they needed to get it opened agent for the peak period.

I'm curious how the park passed the recent inspections with theming that didn't meet standards?

I fail to see how additional parking will mean additional vehicles? Attendance numbers are going to be consistent, not exponentially increase just because there's additional parking available.

Is anyone else surprised that the park is still closed? I thought it had been longer - but still it's been 5 weeks since the incident occurred. They're cutting it pretty close to the school holidays which start at the end of next week. Especially considering the initial plans to reopen just a few days after the incident..

I find this bit interesting in that courier article. So clearly it wasn't any single cause like a pump failure etc that's been speculated on quite a bit.

I think it's the complete opposite. An influx of locals is exactly what the park needs, regardless of whether their season pass holders or not. It's all about the optics when they re-open, you can guarantee the media will be following closely and the vision/interviews they do will be broadcast around the world. Having plenty of locals attending and making the place look busy, commenting on camera how great the park looks and how they felt safe etc, is what will bring the tourists back. Another way to look at it - when your in a foreign country and looking to eat at a restaurant - do you go to the one that's empty or the one that's packed? It's going to be difficult for Dreamworld initially as there's a fine line between needing to keep a somewhat somber attitude to respect the circumstances and the fact it's a theme park and they're trying to sell a fun day out. They're also entering into their busiest time of year too - so hopefully that will help with drawing the crowds back.

Bahaha checkout this beauty that popped up in my news feed..

OK - that idea gave me the willies..You realize people drowned / were made "incompatible with living" by machinery under the water and you want to replace that with something that involves people being in the water... sure that will be a popular ride! Whatever they can't be water related. It's just too close to the situation. They need to go down the path of a roller coaster or some other dry ride i think. I also wonder with them losing so much money being shut, the loss of money from people getting refunds on season passes and other tickets (halloween etc), plus one would assume lower sales for the near future, whether they have the funds to do anything major.

http://webcasting.boardroom.media/broadcast/57ccf860837ebbae11434241/58115ca65939af3a7a000c6e Live cast of the AGM from Ardent Leisure

With of course no financial incentive by Channel 9, and guaranteed there's no leading questions...

Does anyone know whether the conveyor system was modified when they changed from the rotating platform system? I'm thinking along the lines of if the platform was rotating, then there really would have been no requirement for the conveyor to stop as it would have been a constant moving process.

I would think only flat rides and attractions. Anything major so coasters, tot etc would be closed.

The release said only small rides.

Correct - that wasn't my implication however. More that there's been speculation in the media and on facebook in particular about poor maintenance on rides etc. If this was the case then surely this "poor maintenance" practice would have been picked up during an annual full third party inspection..

Read this in an article somewhere yesterday - so if it was a maintenance related fault one would this that it should have been picked up.

There was a comment yesterday about ride issues in the morning, and one thing they mentioned was they had to drain the ride to resolve the issue. If there was a water pump issue would they have been able to refill it so the ride could start operating again? Or maybe they just didn't refill it enough?

Indeed - i must say i find most post incident reports a good read. It's amazing the process they go through during investigations and how they attack problems from completely surprising angles to make the determinations as to the cause. Plus it never ceases to amaze me how a string of somewhat inert minor things can piece together to cause a major incident.