Privately, local staff are left frustrated as parent company Ardent Leisure took lead on the response out of Sydney.

“Sometimes the parent just wants to be a parent,” one says.

Jaws drop when it is announced the park will reopen just three days after the disaster.

The plan is quickly kiboshed by police chiefs including Commissioner Ian Stewart, who say the area is still an active crime scene.

“Can you just imagine it?” a senior police figure confides to The Courier-Mail.

“Welcome back everyone, don’t mind the guys in the forensic suits gathering evidence.

“It’s a terrible look.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reportedly also weighs in, saying: “People aren’t ready.”

In Sydney, Ardent Leisure CEO Deborah Thomas quickly becomes an easy villain.

The former model and magazine editor had been Ardent’s CEO for just over a year when the disaster struck.

She fronts the media two days after the tragedy and tells viewers the company has contacted “the Dorsett family … to offer every assistance we can”.

Watching the press conference on TV, the Dorsett family is furious at the claim, because they have not received a single phone call.

Unbeknown to Thomas, Luke and Kate’s parents, Kim Dorsett and Shayne Goodchild, had long since separated and company representatives had actually been in touch with the Goodchild clan.

As a faux pas it was an understandable mistake, but an angry public looking for someone to blame quickly latches on.

It doesn’t help that Thomas has just been given an annual bonus of more than $160,000 that same day at the Ardent AGM – less than 48 hours after the tragedy.

Commentators take aim at Ardent for even going ahead with the AGM, but executives say they have no choice under existing corporate laws.

Ardent executives also defend Thomas’ bonus, saying it is a reward for the company’s performance in the previous 12 months, not the past two days.

But by the end of the day, under mounting pressure from a public backlash, Thomas reveals she has donated the entire bonus to the Red Cross to help those affected “by this tragic event”.

The next day she attends Dreamworld in person.

The ill-advised October 28 reopening has been delayed until mid-December and instead staff gather for a private service inside the park at Dreamworld Corroboree where indigenous leaders perform a healing smoking ceremony.

That night she joins a huge crowd at a candlelit vigil outside the theme park’s main gate, laying a wreath among a sea of flowers covering the front lawn.

The flowers and cards, literally thousands of them, are eventually collected to form part of a permanent legacy of the tragedy.

Exactly what shape that tribute will take still remains unclear to this day.

Some family members are very much in favour or a memorial, others are adamant they want nothing of the sort.

As staff try to come to terms with the tragedy, the police investigation continues.

Queensland Coroner James McDougall visits the scene while detectives bring in crash test dummies to run simulations on the ride.

Despite dozens of test runs across several days, not once can they recreate the catastrophic scenario of October 25 which caused the rafts to flip.

After two weeks, investigators pack up the crime scene to prepare their reports for the Coroner, but Dreamworld remains closed to the public.

The park will stay shut for 45 days.

That’s 45 days without revenue for a major Gold Coast business that employs 1000 people.

Some of the staff on duty on the day of the tragedy will never go back to work there again.

For others, life must go on.

The menagerie of animals in Dreamworld’s wildlife park require constant care.

Al Mucci, Dreamworld’s general manager of life sciences, later reveals to a zoological conference that the park’s animal stars exhibited signs of depression during the closure with the crowds suddenly gone.

Analysis of the droppings of tigers and koalas, he told a fascinated audience, showed significantly elevated levels of cortisol, a hormone linked to feelings of fear, stress and anxiety during the park’s closure.

Their cortisol levels will reportedly return to normal after the park’s reopening.

After a series of PR fails, Ardent eventually heeds advice to let Dreamworld take greater control of the situation.

Davidson, a Queensland boy who went to school with Keith Urban in Caboolture, becomes the human face of Dreamworld.

He is a compassionate man and popular leader who manages to help turn the tide of angst, giving raw interviews and press conferences.

“We’re heartbroken,” he tells The Courier-Mail.

“We can only imagine what the families are going through.

“Everyone is focused on those families and those kids.

“A lot of people are hurting.”

Within days, Dreamworld appoints respected former police officer Mike McKay, at the suggestion of then-Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart, to help pick up the shattered pieces.

McKay, by now retired from the QPS, knew a thing or two about helping communities heal from disaster, after working with the people of Grantham following the devastating 2011 floods.

To some family members, he will become a trusted confidante through the dark days that follow.

Four weeks after the tragedy, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland inspectors issue a series of breach notices, pinpointing defects that must be addressed before certain rides can be reopened.

The Palaszczuk Government will later pass tough new workplace safety laws including scope for corporate executives to be charged with “industrial manslaughter”.

But the laws are not retrospective and cannot be used to prosecute Dreamworld bosses.

In the weeks following the tragedy, Kate, Luke, Roozi and Cindy are farewelled at deeply emotional funerals attended by hundreds of mourners.

Cindy’s funeral, held on the NSW Central Coast in early November 2016, is the first.

About 150 mourners hear a moving tribute from Mathew Low to his wife of almost 20 years.

“You rocked our world and we loved every minute of it,” Mathew says in a letter read out at the service.

“I promise to celebrate … each precious moment.”

At Roozi’s funeral, held the following week in Canberra, his tearful mother Gay describes his death as ‘painful, premature and unnecessary’.

“He loved his family and he loved his friends and he would have been so happy to see so many of you here today,” she tells mourners.

A double funeral is held in Canberra for Kate and Luke, who both worked for the public service.

The siblings ‘lived life to the fullest’, their uncle Ray Dorsett tells the service.

“We can live each day to show those close to us how much we care about them, that they made a difference … this is how Luke and Kate lived.”

In early December 2016, an unexpected visitor arrives at Dreamworld.

Kim Dorsett, still grieving the loss of her children Kate and Luke, as well as her “other” son, Luke’s partner Roozi, contacts Dreamworld and attends another smoking ceremony performed by the Corroboree’s Yugambeh people.

It’s held under a starry sky on a Friday night, with Kim coming face-to-face with Deborah Thomas, the woman at the forefront of the company’s initially botched public response to the tragedy.

However, despite the odds, the seeds are sown for an unlikely bond.

The women will grow to become firm friends, staying in contact and even going on holidays together.

Barely a week later, Dreamworld opens its gates for the first time since the tragedy.

The sombre reopening, dubbed “Open Hearts, Open Doors” is respectfully low-key.

Many of the rides remain closed and proceeds from tickets sold, already slashed to half price, are donated to the community fund set up in honour of the victims.

The Thunder River Rapids and the old Wild West precinct are boarded up behind sheets of corrugated iron.

The area will never be opened again.

While public sentiment remains strong for Dreamworld, attendances after the reopening are low.

The usually bumper summer school holiday crowds do not materialise and in mid-January, Ardent reports to shareholders that revenue from Dreamworld and sister park WhiteWater World have plummeted 63 per cent since the tragedy.

In the end-of-year report in June, Ardent, which has other entertainment businesses outside of Dreamworld, announces a $62.6 million loss – down from a $42.4 million profit the previous year, with crowds slumping by more than 30 per cent.

By then, Thomas has already walked away from Ardent, initially standing down as CEO to take on a lesser role, but eventually quitting the company altogether, receiving a $731,000 payout.

On the eve of the anniversary of the tragedy, detectives finally complete the exhaustive investigation, delivering a two-volumebrief to the coroner’s office.

Profits continue to plummet at Dreamworld, but Ardent reassures the community the park is here to stay.

A new chairman, acclaimed lawyer and investor Gary Weiss, vows to rebuild Dreamworld’s reputation with millions of dollars to be poured into new attractions.

And the arrival of a new CEO in John Osborne heralds a new focus on ‘airline-style safety standards’

But the looming inquest continues to cast a dark cloud over any hopes of brighter skies.

OTHER NEWS

Part 1: The sliding doors moment that ended in tragedy

Part 2: When happiness turned to horror

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