Dreamworld remembers Thunder River Rapids Roozbeh victims with memorial garden
The victims of Dreamworld’s Thunder River Rapids tragedy have been remembered through a memorial at the theme park.
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Dreamworld has opened a garden in memory of those affected by the Thunder River Rapids tragedy, hosting a private opening ceremony with family and friends of the victims.
The garden, near the Rainbow Serpent and wildlife part of the park, was designed to offer a quiet place of reflection and tranquillity, with native foliage and seating for Dreamworld guests.
It was built in memory of Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozbeh Araghi and Cindy Low, who died on the Thunder River Rapids Ride tragedy in 2016.
Family and friends held a private ceremony at the garden to mark its opening to the public on Sunday morning.
Dreamworld CEO Greg Yong expressed his sympathies to the families and friends of those lost in the tragedy.
“Our thoughts are also with the first responders, emergency services personnel, investigators, counsellors and Dreamworld team members impacted by this tragedy,” he said.
“We have committed to respectfully creating a space that offers a moment of reflection for our guests as a memorial within the park.”
About 2pm on October 25, 2016, a pump stopped working on the Thunder River Rapids Ride, causing water levels to drop, a raft to become stuck on the conveyor belt and the lives of many to change forever.
That raft was hit by another carrying Luke Dorsett, his sister Kate Goodchild, her daughter Ebony, 12, Roozbeh Araghi, Cindy Low and her son, Kieran, 10.
The four adults were killed as a result of the incident. The children escaped uninjured.
The ride has been demolished.
Why Dreamworld won’t hide its tragic past
February 18
A familiar tune filters through the loudspeakers of the theme park.
“Take a trip away from the every day …”
While the audience of guests – predictably thin on the ground this mid-week mid-morning – hurry on to the next thrill ride, the lyrics hit home for Dreamworld CEO Greg Yong.
After all, the 41-year-old first came to the park when the Coomera attraction was still reeling from the Thunder River Rapids tragedy that saw four lives lost in 2016.
Arriving from Village Roadshow to Dreamworld as chief operating officer in 2019, before being named CEO last year, he was confident he could steer the park to better, brighter days.
And then came Covid.
For the last three years, it’s safe to say that every day has been anything but a holiday for Greg.
But rather than hiding from the park’s history, Dreamworld is owning it.
And that includes its darkest chapter.
While details are yet to be released, Greg confirms the park will memorialise the victims of the disaster.
“Something is coming, we’ll be announcing it soon,” he says.
“We will never try to hide what happened, we have to own it. Sadly, it is part of our history forever.
“We’ll never get over the heartache of it, but rather than hiding from it, it drives us to move forward.”
In fact, acknowledging its past is part of Dreamworld’s grand plan when it comes to facing its future.
Not only has it remastered its famous 1980s jingle, it’s restoring some of its heritage rides and attractions.
Greg says nostalgia has become a huge drawcard, not just for Gold Coasters, but for people worldwide who crave the comfort and safety of the past compared to the roller-coaster years of the pandemic.
And his plan seems to be working.
While this summer was not the post-pandemic season of his dreams thanks to Covid regulations and the virus itself, Greg says the park still posted good numbers and is now looking forward to a bumper Easter.
“We’ll be releasing those shortly but January was especially good,” he says. “Our guest scores were the highest they have ever been.
“Throughout all of these troubled times, we have really felt the support of Gold Coasters – and Australians – who want us to succeed. And once they were really able to come out and see us, they did.
“I think we’ve finally reached that point now where we have officially turned the page on those tough times and we’re focused on moving forward. But part of that does mean acknowledging our past.
“Even with our theme song, we had some marketing experts come in and pitch new tunes and they were great … but really, you can’t go past the one-day-holiday song. It was perfection then and it’s still perfect now.
“There are so many things that Dreamworld has done right and we’re embracing that. That is our identity.”
That embrace includes the renovation and refurbishment of the nostalgic train the Dreamworld Express, which even has its own appreciation page on social media, that will include making the ride wheelchair-accessible. The park’s signature Giant Drop tower is also set to be completely repainted and topped with a permanent lighting display come mid-year.
But the future is not all about the past, with Greg actively working on the park’s “next big thing”.
“Every second day I’m talking to someone in the US or Europe about the next big ride we build,” he says.
“We haven’t made the final decision yet, but we know it will be something in the family-friendly zone that’s world class. It’s going to be more in line with Sky Voyager than Steel Taipan.
“I’m also still actively pursuing the development on-site accommodation for the park. We came close last year but the package we had just wasn’t the right one.
“We’ve known for 15-20 years that this is what this park – and this area of the Coast – needs, but we’ve never nailed it down. I’ve got the hammer ready.”
While these international Zoom calls require Greg to work odd hours, that seems to just be part of the job these days.
The father of three daughters – aged 17, 14 and 8 – is at work early in the morning and in the office until late at night, often seven days a week.
He doesn’t have a personal assistant or secretary but is hands-on around the park, from greeting guests at the gate to taking photos for tourists to operating rides himself.
“That’s just where we are at right now, that’s what the park needs. After the tough times we’ve had, it’s literally my job to know what’s happening at every level and to be there to talk to people.
“It’s also just the way the world is right now, no one has the luxury to just do their one thing … we’ve all had to economise and learn to work efficiently as we can.
“It is a lot, especially with my wife (Tanya) working as a midwife at Gold Coast University Hospital. She takes a lot of night shifts … so sometimes we are like ships passing in the night.
“But we’ve been married since we were 19, we are old souls. We met in high school and somehow she saw some possibility in me.”
In fact, Greg’s personal story has as many twists and turns as any Dreamworld ride.
He was kicked out of home at the age of 16, didn’t trouble a textbook for most of his time at Merrimac High School and achieved an OP of 20 (equivalent to an ATAR of 45).
“I was a s***head at school,” he laughs.
“My parents and I are fine now, it really was me. I remember my physics teacher, Mr McCabe, he used to try to talk me around to trying harder but I had no time for that.
“He actually got in touch with me recently and was like, ‘well, I guess you did all right for yourself in the end’.”
After his less-than-stellar finish to his high school career, Greg worked as a manager at Toys R Us at Pacific Fair before taking an entry-level job at Sea World and working his way up to be COO of Village Roadshow Theme Parks Asia … and then to Dreamworld.
Along with their own daughters, Greg and Tanya were also foster parents for years, an experience he says changed his understanding of our city.
It’s part of the reason he’s now a board member, and former president, of the Gold Coast Community Fund, which helps raise money for residents in need.
“Being a foster dad was an incredible experience. It was my wife who talked me into going to the first meeting, but once I heard the stories, it was me who signed us up,” he says.
“We had two daughters at the time, who were eight and six, and we were recommended to foster children younger than them. It did teach them some life lessons at an early age.
“One boy we fostered for two years, from when he was a baby to when he was two years old. That was hard to say goodbye to him. We understood that he was not our child, but it was difficult because he couldn’t understand that we were not his parents. He would call us mummy and daddy.
“We’ve seen him a few times since he left us and he is doing so well. He really had a happy ending.
“But it opened my eyes to how tough things can be, even on the Gold Coast. And the last couple of years have really brought that to the fore.
“The work I do with the Gold Coast Community Fund really shows you the level of need out there, especially on the northern Gold Coast. We receive up to 40 applications every month for help. That is a lot for one organisation in one city.”
As a resident himself of Upper Coomera, with his daughters attending local state schools, Greg sees Dreamworld as integral to not just the fabric of the Gold Coast, but especially its northern suburbs.
He says when it comes to local annual passes, many of them come from neighbouring suburbs – and he sees part of his job as providing nearby families and youth with some good old-fashioned fun.
And he’s determined to make that old-fashioned jingle happen too.
“We’re actually toying with the idea of having the Wiggles re-record it,” he says.
“We work really closely with them but I have to admit, every time I talk to them I get absolutely starstruck. They sang ‘happy birthday’ on Zoom for Dreamworld’s 40th anniversary last year and I cried. It’s sad but true.
“I just can’t think of anything better than them singing our theme song.
“Who knows? One day it could be the next winner of the Triple J Hottest 100.”
As the Dreamworld lyrics say, don’t say one day …
‘Three-day party’: GC500 concert line-up unveiled
GC500 bosses will unveil a “great spectacle” for this year’s race which will dramatically shake up the event, as the first plans for night racing on the streets of Surfers Paradise have been revealed.
Road closed, power out after mystery power poles collapse
A busy northern Gold Coast road has been closed in both directions and homes are without electricity after power poles came down, with Energex investigating the cause of the incident. Latest details.