Dreamworld reopens fan favourite Rocky Hollow Log Ride — with one big difference

MORE than a year since a teen almost lost his life on the attraction, Dreamworld’s Rocky Hollow Log Ride is open again.

ONE of Dreamworld’s most popular attractions has finally reopened, more than a year after a teenager almost lost his life on the family-friendly ride.

The theme park’s Rocky Hollow Log Ride reopened today with a major difference — the logs people sit in on the ride are now equipped with metal frames and perspex canopies.

In a video to celebrate the ride’s reopening, a spokesperson for Dreamworld said the canopies had been added “to prevent riders from standing up during the ride”.

The Rocky Hollow Log Ride with its perspex roof.

How revellers will ride the log attraction now.

The change comes almost two years after a teenager was left with horrific injuries when he fell out of the Rocky Hollow Log Ride in April 2017.

Samson Sherrin, 19, was run over by two other boats as he lay unconscious in the water, suffering hip, rib and ankle fractures, neck and head injuries and acute respiratory failure, and nearly drowned.

The theme park visitor, from Brisbane, also caught pneumonia, has struggled with psychological problems and is still receiving counselling.

The Rocky Hollow Log Ride was closed after the accident but was given the all clear by Worksafe Queensland inspectors and reopened two days later.

Mr Sherrin’s accident was the second major incident on a Dreamworld ride in six months.

In October 2016, two men and two women died on the Thunder River Rapids ride after a raft carrying six people flipped.

Both the Thunder River Rapids ride and the Rocky Hollow Log Ride were two of the oldest attractions in the park.

How the ride looks now.

How it used to look. Picture: Mike Batterham

The Rocky Hollow Log Ride is 35 years old and has been operating since the theme park, Australia’s largest, opened.

Dreamworld also announced another one of its “big nine” thrillseeker rides has opened.

After more than a year of extensive safety checks, the WipeOut ride is also open and fully operational.

The mammoth Gold Coast theme park continues to push back towards recovery since the October 2016 tragedy and the reopening of the Rocky Hollow Log Ride and WipeOut means Dreamworld is at full operational capacity again.

The investigation done on the Thunder River Rapids Ride has been completed with a coronial inquest expected to be completed some time later this year.

Originally published as Dreamworld reopens fan favourite Rocky Hollow Log Ride — with one big difference