Dreamworld’s request to bypass WHSQ legal registration requirements

Dreamworld failed to notify industry regulators about any modifications made to the Thunder River Rapids ride since it was first approved more than 30 years ago, an inquest has been told.

DREAMWORLD failed to notify industry regulators about any modifications made to the Thunder River Rapids ride since it was first approved more than 30 years ago, an inquest has been told.

Giving evidence at the inquest in to the deaths of Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland’s chief safety engineer Michael Chan told Coroner James McDougall the industry regulator had never received any notification from Dreamworld about any modifications as part of the design registration process.

The ride’s design was first registered in August 1987, but the ride was modified many times in the years that followed.

Crucially, at some time in the late 1980s, two out of every three slats on the conveyor belt were removed, which Mr Tan said made the ride ‘even more hazardous’.

“You have introduced a hazard ... that alteration should have been notified,” he said.

The deserted Thunder River Rapids Ride after the tragedy. Picture: Glenn Hampson

11.11AM: Dreamworld executives asked Workplace Health and Safety Queensland to exempt them from engaging professional ride registration engineers just months before the Thunder River Rapids tragedy, an inquest has been told.

WHSQ’s chief safety engineer Michael Chan said he met with Dreamworld department heads in August 2016 where they proposed bypassing legal registration requirements because the park ‘has implemented an effective in-house maintenance and inspection system’.

Mr Chan refused the request, explaining it was a legal requirement to engage “a suitably qualified and experienced person” to perform an annual inspection.

“(It’s not the case that) just because you have a system in place you’re good to go,” he said.