Gold Coast’s Dreamworld founder: ‘I’ve lost a lot of tears over the terrible accident’

DREAMWORLD’S first owner, John Longhurst, has wept over the terrible accident that claimed four lives on the theme park’s river rapids ride.

DREAMWORLD’S first owner, John Longhurst, has wept over the terrible accident that claimed four lives on the theme park’s river rapids ride.

Mr Longhurst, who built and opened the park at Coomera in 1981, said that until the accident last week, the Thunder River Rapids ride would have safely carried “tens of millions’’ of people since it opened.

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The raft ride and the Eureka Mountain Mine ride were key parts of an extra attraction Mr Longhurst (pictured) opened in 1986, Gold Rush Country, to add to the excitement of tourists.

“I’m almost broken by what’s happened,’’ he said this week.

“A woman gives birth to a child, loves it and cares for it. That’s how it was with Dreamworld. I’ve lost a lot of tears over that.

Dreamworld founder John Longhurst in 1981. He says he has ‘lost a lot of tears’ over last week’s accident.

“That ride would have carried tens of millions of people. It’s just an unbelievable occurrence.’’

Mr Longhurst, 84, said he had only returned to the park once since he sold it in 1989 to Dreamco. That was a month after the sale.

Dreamco went into receivership about a year after taking over but the park kept operating, managing to increase the numbers of visitors, and about $40 million was invested on marketing and capital before the park was bought in 1995 by Singaporean businessman Kua Phek Long, who invested an additional $20 million.

Dreamworld victims Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low. Picture: Supplied

Macquarie Leisure Trust Group then bought it in 1999. Macquarie Leisure was renamed Ardent Leisure in June 2009 and continues to operate Dreamworld, but Ardent voted on a name change last week and will become Main Event Entertainment.

“It’s a shocking thing,’’ Mr Longhurst said of the disaster.

“You don’t expect it, especially when people go out to have a great time.’’

Once described as “the man who makes dreams come true’’, Mr Longhurst’s sorrow this week was a far cry from decades ago when he would bounce around in excitement as he talked about his creation and his plans.

Red Cross volunteers start to remove flowers from Dreamworld yesterday. The tributes will form part of a living memorial. Picture: David Clark

In an interview with the Bulletin 31 years ago, Mr Longhurst talked about his life, his entrepreneurial bent, ideas that should never be ignored, his dream that became Dreamworld, and a new attraction that was to open a year later, taking families on a thrilling rapids rafting adventure.

In the feature that resulted, published on August 7, 1985, he said he planned to build a $3 million adventure down a series of rapids. It was to be heart-stopping stuff, but safe.

The ride opened the next year.

Mr Longhurst also talked about his start in business when, as a young man, he had decided he could build the country’s best lawnmower.

His first job was in a small engineering business and his old boss had made a large rotary mower of such proportions and power it chewed up and spat out rocks and bottles and required two men to control it.

Mr Longhurst believed he could build better mowers and set up business in a small shed, turning them out one at a time and going door to door to sell them.That was the start of Pace Mowers, which grew until the business was churning out 1100 machines a week.

Victa bought him out and he moved into house construction and then building fibreglass boats.

He travelled overseas with an industrial designer to study new products and dream up big ideas, but what grabbed him most was Disneyland.

The problem was, where he could go to build his own park?

Carriages are removed from the scene at Dreamworld. Picture: Richard Gosling

Mr Longhurst swore that as he eased himself back into his plane seat one day a thought flashed into his mind: “pine trees, a sweeping road, 10 miles (16km) from the Gold Coast’’.

The search for a site did not begin until 1970. Coomera didn’t come into it until 1973.

“I was living in Sydney at the time and so I was looking around Sydney,’’ he said.

“Every time I felt I had found a site that was suitable, the councils would say there was a highway going through or they didn’t want that type of development there.

“I don’t feel they understood what I was trying to do.’’

So he came to the Gold Coast because, as someone told him, that’s where people holiday and spend money.

He was shown property in the Hinze Dam area because agents reckoned that was where tourists would gather.

But nothing excited him until one scratched his head and mentioned Coomera.

“I said ‘Where’s that?’ and he said, ‘Oh, about 10 miles from Surfers’,’’ Longhurst said.

When he saw the property, the vision returned. There were the pine trees near the school and the old highway swept around the front.

FLASHBACK: Dreamworld’s official opening on December 17, 1981.

Mr Longhurst made his way through the long grass to speak to the owner, who was living in an old house at a corner of the 80ha property.

A house sign, “Hollywood’’, sealed his decision to buy.

The next step was to start landscaping. Mr Longhurst bought a dozer and as the delivery truck began to move off, he realised he didn’t know how to operate the machine.

“How do I drive it?’’ he called to the truck driver.

“You work it out,’’ was the reply, and the driver laughed as he drove off.

Mr Longhurst taught himself and a few years later the front gates opened to a theme park that was growing into a small city, walling out the worries of the outside world.

“It’s a pretty rough world we live in today,’’ Mr Longhurst said at the time. “I wanted to create a place where the guests would walk through the front entry and be in another world.’’