Dreamworld Memorial & Reopening discussion

[Carrie_Smattick]

Channel 7 reported tonight the cops have shut down the park opening tomorrow as it is 'still an active crime scene'

[Theme Park Girl]

Yes, this was mentioned and article linked to on the previous page. 

[Jamberoo Fan]

Some key quotes from today's Chairman & Chief Executive Officer addresses of the Annual General Meeting of Ardent Leisure:

Quote

We plan to re-open the theme park as normal on Saturday, however the Thunder River Rapids Ride will be closed until the conclusion of the Coronial enquiry.

Remember, the key word in the quote above was 'plan' and this was said just after 10am this morning - 'plans' may have changed since then but the phase about Thunder River Rapids is definite. It does give a sign that, depending on the Coronial enquiry's findings, they may re-open the ride. Plans did change though as there are media reports from approximately 12pm today that Dreamworld's re-opening is now Monday at the earliest.

Quote

As of 25 October 2016, approximately 34% of total revenue generated by Theme Parks in FY16 has already been earned in FY17. However, revenue lost as a result of this tragic event will have a significant impact on EBITDA for the remainder of the year, due to the high fixed costs required to operate the business. 

Lastly, Ardent Leisure has changed it's name to Main Event Entertainment with 99.5% of shareholders/investors voting in favour of the change

In good news, their share price went up by 8% today - the biggest gain on the ASX today. Village Roadshow's also went up by 0.2% so I think the immediate effects on the sharemarket are slowing down but may be affected again in the future depending on the outcome of the investigations and future visitation to the parks.

Also, some good signs about Dreamworld's future reported by The Australian:

Quote

Ardent Leisure will not "cut and run" from its Dreamworld theme park and will support the families of four people killed in a horrific accident at the Gold Coast facility, chairman Neil Balnaves says.

Mr Balnaves says Dreamworld remains an integral part of Ardent's business following the tragedy on Tuesday, even as the company increases its business in the United States and approved a name change to reflect its new global entertainment focus.

"A disaster like this would not require a cut and run philosophy," Mr Balnaves said at a press conference after the company's annual general meeting in Sydney on Thursday.

Mr Balnaves said he couldn't say the board would not consider any "absolutely fabulous" offer if one arose for Dreamworld, but "we certainly wouldn't be cutting and running from it because of the accident".

Edited October 27, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan

[Whombex]

2 hours ago, Carrie_Smattick said:

Channel 7 reported tonight the cops have shut down the park opening tomorrow as it is 'still an active crime scene'

No, they haven't "shut down the park", they've advised Dreamworld to not re-open. They're not locking the gates or anything.

I'd like to see the memorial in a quiet corner of the park, not in Gold Rush (or whatever replaces it, if it is removed).

[Jamberoo Fan]

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Quote

Dreamworld's claim that it decided to cancel its reopening on Friday based on advice given by police is inaccurate, Queensland police say.

A statement released by Dreamworld on Thursday afternoon outlined that the cancellation of Friday's reopening was to give the police service the time it needed for its investigation...

...However, a Queensland police spokesperson said Dreamworld's statement was not accurate.

"Unfortunately the statement was not an accurate description of how the decision was made to not reopen the park," the spokesperson said.

Police would not comment further with regards to its claim of inaccuracy.

[Theme Park Girl]

Wtf. That doesn't answer anything. Why don't they just say what the reason was, then? ?

[Monkeypie]

That doesn't make sense?

[Jamberoo Fan]

Here's an additional part of the quote reported by The Australian:

Quote

“It’s best to contact Dreamworld to seek clarification.”

Ardent Leisure's (soon to be officially called Main Event Entertainment) share price dropped again today by 5% this time - not a significant drop in size - but it is nearly back out of the 2 year trend it was in again so it was a significant drop in some way. This drop is likely to be attributed to Ardent Leisure's poor crisis management.

Some details about when a potential re-opening could happen from The Australian:

Quote

Assistant Commissioner Brian Codd said yesterday police would not rush their investigation, as they negotiated with Dreamworld over when the park could reopen.

“We are working as fast as we can but we are not going to compromise the speed or thoroughness in order for us to be able to vacate that area and acquire the evidence and the facts that we need. If there are perhaps other electrical or water or hydraulic sources, or switches from another part of the park that impact on that ride, they form part of the investig­ation. We’re going through this ­meticulously, in great depth — the scope of this is quite considerable” Mr Codd said.

A police warrant for the park expires next Tuesday.

Edited October 28, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan
Added source to 1st quote with hyperlink

[Gary86]

Dreamworld won't be reopening until after the funerals.

[Carrie_Smattick]

23 hours ago, Glubbo said:

No, they haven't "shut down the park", they've advised Dreamworld to not re-open. They're not locking the gates or anything.

I'd like to see the memorial in a quiet corner of the park, not in Gold Rush (or whatever replaces it, if it is removed).

I didn't use that wording - only posted what the news had said. Jeez.

Gonna cost them big to demolish the entire area. Retheme the buzzsaw or demolish it?

[erikals]

21 minutes ago, Carrie_Smattick said:

I didn't use that wording - only posted what the news had said. Jeez.

Gonna cost them big to demolish the entire area. Retheme the buzzsaw or demolish it?

The Buzzsaw will probably stay, as long as it passes all safety inspections.

As far as demolishing the entirety of Gold Rush Country, I doubt they'll send in Caterpillar dozers to remove every last bit of it. Most likely is that it will be renovated to a different theme (if that does indeed happen) and given a new name.

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

found this on the website when trying to book a V8 Supercars experience, perhaps the park might reopen on Wednesday? 

[Gary86]

2 hours ago, Theme Park Ninja said:

found this on the website when trying to book a V8 Supercars experience, perhaps the park might reopen on Wednesday? 

The park will not be reopening till all for victims are put to rest. I wouldn't be buying anything from the Dreamworld website yet. Wait till the park reopens.

[Theme Park Girl]

I second that. I would absolutely be not going ahead with any park purchases right now. In fact I'm surprised the website is even allowing transactions atm, given everything is all up in the air at this time 

Not that I don't doubt for a second that the park will pass it's safety audits, but that's one of many things that could change the park's future with reopening. 

It's a one step at a time process. We all just have to be patient. 

[Jamberoo Fan]

Dreamworld's re-opening may be a lot longer in the future now. Ardent Leisure CEO, Deborah Thomas, said today:

Quote

"I have asked the Dreamworld CEO, Craig Davidson, to develop a structured program of community healing to work with the families, authorities, the government, non-government organisations and the public to rebuild trust and confidence in Dreamworld. Then and only then can we think about reopening our park"

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

That's not how I read it. I read it is - once Craig has a plan developed, they can reopen.... not once they have executed that plan.

Developing that plan won't take very long.

[Jamberoo Fan]

Yeah - there are 2 ways to reading that statement. Your interpretation is more likely though.

[New display name]

Didn't they already anonce today that they have hired an ex top police officer to do just that?  

DREAMWORLD have appointed the former policeman who ran the 2011 flood recovery in Grantham to help the theme park deal with the tragedy. 

Mike McKay, a former Queensland police officer with 41 years experience, was appointed to the role on Friday after receiving a call from Dreamworld’s parent company Ardent Leisure on Thursday night.

Edited October 30, 2016 by YLFATEEKS

[themagician]

It was stated on the news just before saying that the park will not reopen until all rides have been checked over and the funerals of the victims have been held. I imagine that it may not be until mid to late November before the park reopens.

[Brad2912]

24 minutes ago, themagician said:

It was stated on the news just before saying that the park will not reopen until all rides have been checked over and the funerals of the victims have been held. I imagine that it may not be until mid to late November before the park reopens.

Funerals will take place this week as the deceased were released to the families over the weekend.

From all accounts the safety checks begun Saturday, I don't imagine it will take weeks to sign off the park unless there are issues that arise 

[Jamberoo Fan]

19 hours ago, YLFATEEKS said:

Didn't they already anonce today that they have hired an ex top police officer to do just that?  

Well the Dreamworld CEO would have appointed him to develop the plan. Once he has developed that plan, then that is another part of the re-opening criteria ticked off (assuming @AlexB's interpretation of the Ardent Leisure CEO's statement is correct).

6 hours ago, themagician said:

It was stated on the news just before saying that the park will not reopen until all rides have been checked over and the funerals of the victims have been held. I imagine that it may not be until mid to late November before the park reopens.

6 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

I don't imagine it will take weeks to sign off the park unless there are issues that arise 

I might be getting a bit technical but they said 'all rides' so surely this would include Thunder River Rapids, whose safety audit will take longer than the rest of the rides?

Edited October 31, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan

[themagician]

I think the audit would be complete sperate for the river Rapids, because of all the other investigations that the ride will go under. And the audits for the rest of the rides is so that they can reopen after it's been proven they are safe, while the future of river Rapids is unknown 

[Brad2912]

The current safety audit will not included TRR, the park is not going to wait for TRR to be certified Safe to operate before they open the park... 

[Jamberoo Fan]

I understand that Thunder River Rapids is not part of the main safety audit but really, it will go through a safety audit as part of the investigation (hence why I called it a safety audit to simplify things). I'm thinking more along the lines that even if all the rides of DW are found to be safe in their safety audit, they would still have to wait to see if the Thunder River Rapids investigation found one of the causes of the incident to be due to park mismanagement (such as poor policies, relaxed maintenance/ride operation culture etc.). If they could rule that out, then the park can open all other safe rides again to the general public.

Edited October 31, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan

[Brad2912]

The first funeral will be held today, with 2 more this weekend and the final one on Monday. 

DW CEO has announced that out of respect for the families, there is a media blackout and no further media calls/press releases/interviews will occur until after the funerals next week.