Kim Dorsett, for some inexplicable reason, awoke the morning of October 25, 2016 with an “uneasy feeling”.
In hindsight, it was a chilling premonition.
It was a postcard-perfect spring day on the Gold Coast: blue skies, a light sea breeze and the mercury nudging a balmy 25C.
The school holidays were over and it looked like an idyllic day to hit the theme parks again, Kim and her family thought.
But which one? They’d been to Dreamworld twice already on this holiday, as well as Movie World and Sea World.
In the proverbial toss of the coin, Dreamworld – the tourist wonderland which promised to ‘create happy memories that last a lifetime’ – won out.
Within hours, this sunny October Tuesday on the Gold Coast would turn black.
Kim and her family – daughter Kate Goodchild, son Luke Dorsett, his partner Roozi Araghi, Kate’s partner Dave Turner and their two children Ebony, 12, and eight-month-old Evie – were on the Glitter Strip from Canberra for a wedding.
They’d left the nation’s capital in minus temperatures and, big fans of the Coast and all its sun-soaked attractions, had decided to turn the trip into an extended family holiday.
On the morning of October 25, 2016, they gathered in their Broadbeach holiday apartment to work out plans for the day.
Kate and Luke discussed either Sea World or Dreamworld. Ebony was keen on the latter, with all its thrill rides and attractions like Tiger Island. Dreamworld it was again, then!
“I don’t know who said what, but someone just said ‘We’re just going to Dreamworld’,” Kim would later recall.
“So … toss of a coin.”
In a decision that may have saved her life – but left it shattered beyond repair – Kim decided to go shopping instead of heading to the Coomera theme park with the rest of the family.
She would tearfully tell later how she’d woken up feeling “really uneasy … that something was going to happen”.
“I remember waking up and just had an uneasy feeling, but never in my wildest dreams was (something) going to happen to the kids or anybody.
“I knew, just that, you know … something wasn’t quite right.”
OTHER CHAPTERS
Part 2: When happiness turned to horror
CONTINUE READING OUR 4-PART SERIES
Brave dad makes citizen’s arrest amid home invasion horror
A Cairns couple have told of a terrifying home invasion that ended with the husband making a citizen’s arrest of a teen suspect.
Pants-wearing female student fails in challenge to school skirts rule
A female Queensland high school student who wore pants to school has failed in a discrimination complaint over being forced to wear skirts to formal events. VOTE IN OUR POLL