Kim Dorsett’s letter ahead of Dreamworld ride anniversary

The Canberra mother who lost two of her children and one of their partners in the Dreamworld ride tragedy has written of her ongoing pain, saying their loss was a ‘life sentence’.

As the fifth anniversary of the Dreamworld disaster looms, the Canberra mother who lost her two children and one of their partners in the tragedy has penned a heartbreaking letter telling how burying them was ‘the easiest part’ and she is ‘living my worst nightmare’.

Kim Dorsett, whose daughter Kate Goodchild, son Luke and his partner Roozi Araghi were killed in the October 2016 Thunder River Rapids ride tragedy which also claimed the life of NSW woman Cindy Low, says the loss of her loved ones is “a life sentence, eating away at our daily lives”.

Kim Dorsett leaves the coronial inquest into the deaths of the victims of the Dreamworld ride tragedy. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

“(It’s) five harrowing years on since our precious daughter Kate, our loving son Luke and his devoted partner Roozi were taken from us far too early,” Ms Dorsett said in the letter, published in New Idea.

“It seems like yesterday, and at times it feels like a lifetime ago. The brutal reality is this is a life sentence, ever present, eating away at our daily lives – from the knock on the door from two beautiful policemen that should never have to tell a mother her two children had been killed on a theme park ride, to the funeral two weeks later.

“As Roozi’s father said to me once, ‘The easiest part of this was burying them’.

“I realise that while this is living my worst nightmare, there are others with stories just as heartbreaking as mine. To lose a child or children is never a thought in any mother’s head.”

Ms Dorsett said she treasured the time she got to spend with Kate and Luke and the 32 years and 35 years respectively she had to hold them.

Kate Goodchild, 32, was one of four people killed in the tragedy. (AAP Image/Supplied)

Earlier this year, she celebrated Luke’s 40th birthday – who “loved life and loved a party” – with some of his closest friends and colleagues.

“We laughed and we cried, recalling the funny times and how quickly those memories could end with so much sadness,” she said.

“We celebrate all three birthdays during the year with cupcakes and tea for Roozi, beer for Kate and bubbles for Luke. I visit the cemetery each week and chat away about everything that has happened and all the gossip from the world of TV and celebrities.”

Ms Dorsett said Kate’s daughters, Ebony and Evie, “continue to grow and develop into beautiful young people”.

Ebony was on the Thunder River Rapids ride when the accident happened but miraculously survived.

“Ebony is in Year 12 and almost finished her school life,” Ms Dorsett said.

“She was busy exploring Year 7 high school in 2016, playing netball just as her mother did at the same age, when her whole world turned upside down.

Roozi Araghi and Luke Dorsett.

“Our littlest one (Evie) was just a baby while we were in Queensland (in 2016). Two days after we returned to Canberra without her mother and uncles, she bravely crawled for the first time.

“There have been many first milestones her mum has missed. She is nearly through kindy and reminds me so much of her mother, Kate, who had a heart of gold.

“We have often visited the cemetery together, and I always find her chatting to her Mummy Kate, her Uncle Luke and Roozi (until recently, she called him Susie!). Those boys loved the girls as their own – they were their own little angels.”

Ms Dorsett said one of the ‘beautiful’ police officers who knocked on her door to tell her the terrible news remains a big part of her life.

“We can never thank him enough for his extraordinary kindness – he too is a victim,” she said.

The scene of the accident on the Thunder River Rapids Ride, which has since been demolished.

“It’s still hard to believe three mothers lost their children that day. We remain close to Roozi’s family – they’re wonderful souls. We honour another tragic victim too, loving mum Cindy Low – a woman we never knew, but as families, are united in grief.

“The saddest part – this could’ve been avoided.”

Ms Dorsett said plans were being prepared for a memorial garden at Dreamworld Park marking the fifth anniversary since the accident.

“This special garden, designed to change with the seasons, is not a final chapter. It is to be a place where we can go and remember our precious loved ones, a place to reflect on the good times we had together and, most of all, to let them know they will never be forgotten,” she said.