‘We thought we were doing the right thing’: Ardent CEO

HUNDREDS of Dreamworld staff gathered at the park today for a memorial day — but they won’t be returning to work anytime soon.

DREAMWORLD won’t reopen until at least after the four funerals of the people killed during Tuesday’s disaster.

A statement from the theme park’s chief executive Craig Davidson on Friday afternoon confirmed the park would stay close until at least after the funerals of the four victims.

Mr Davidson said the decision to remain closed was made by Deborah Thomas, the chief executive of Dreamworld owner Ardent Leisure.

He said the memorial held this morning — which originally was supposed to be the start of a partial reopening — was attended by as many as 500 staff.

“The ceremony was extremely moving and we made a commitment to move forward together.”

Mr Davidson said the company accepted there were many questions about safety reviews now being rolled out across the park.

“No attraction in this park will reopen until internal and external safety audits are completed and peer reviewed.”

Earlier on Friday, Ms Thomas fought back tears as she admitted the company might not have handled the tragedy as well as it could have.

She finally visited the Gold Coast theme park to see the floral tribute to the four who died there on Tuesday and attend a private ceremony with hundreds of staff.

“If I haven’t handled it as well as we could, we thought we were doing the right thing in terms of the way we approached it through the police,” she said. “If the families are watching — I have spoken to a number of them — we will look after them.”

The chief executive apologised for any hurt the company’s response may have caused after she came under fire for not contacting the families of the deceased straight after the incident.

“We’ve reached out to many of the people involved in the tragedy,” she said today.

Her words come after the family of victims Luke Dorsett and his sister Kate Goodchild sent her an angry message while watching her press conference at the company’s annual general meeting yesterday.

The siblings’ family said they were furious Ms Thomas was saying she had reached out to them, but hadn’t tried to get in contact directly, instead talking to a police liaison officer.

Their feelings were shared by Simon Araghi, the brother of Luke’s partner Roozi Araghi, who was also killed on the ride along with New Zealander Cindy Low.

Simon Araghi said he was only contacted by Ms Thomas yesterday, two days after the incident. “I finally got a call wanting to discuss things and offering their support, but I told them we don’t want to discuss it,” he said. “I would have preferred the call a lot earlier.”

Ms Thomas shook hands with staff and visitors as she paid tribute to the dead. Picture: Ed Jackson/AAP

Ms Thomas, who was also attacked for her $843,000 bonus at the company’s AGM, today met staff and visitors at Dreamworld and laid flowers at the scene.

“It is very emotional, but what’s important is that all our people are here, we had the most wonderful ceremony and we are all here today to be part of the family, to hug each other, to provide support to each other,” she said. “This is a great group of people, everybody has been moved by this.

“Everybody is suffering from this and saddened and it’s not just the people who work with us but their families as well, so I hope this is the beginning of the healing process. That is what we want.”

She has said she will donate her entire cash bonus of $167,500 to the Australian Red Cross.

Today, she said the floral display at the park was “a wonderful tribute to people who’ve lost their lives.”

Dreamworld boss Craig Davidson said he too has spoken personally to family members of all four victims of Tuesday’s tragedy at the theme park.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate and local tourism officials attended the memorial service for the people killed when a raft flipped over on the Thunder River Rapids ride.

“We had to follow a process to do that,” Mr Davidson told Triple M radio in Brisbane.

“We had to go through liaison officers and we had to do it sensitively. “We had made contact but trying to reach every single family representative was tough and frankly we, in some cases, are the last people they want to speak to.” Mr Davidson said assisting the families and the two children who survived the accident was the first priority of his company and Ardent Leisure. After that, he said, park staff, particularly those managing the ride at the time of the tragedy, also need support.

“First of all, we look after the families, we look after our team,” he said. “Secondly, we co-operate fully with the investigation. Every single aspect of it, and without question, let the investigators do their job and find out what happened with this terrible tragedy.” As the service was being held on Friday morning, police were continuing their investigations at the scene of the accident.

Initially it was planned to allow public into the park on Friday for a public memorial day but after discussions with police, that was cancelled on Thursday afternoon.

Queensland Employment Minister Grace Grace was among those who laid flowers at the growing tribute to the victims outside the park’s entrance. Ms Grace said her department was offering counselling and support to staff in the wake of Tuesday’s accident.

“I believe there are a number of people that are offering counselling and genuine support services to all involved,” she said.

A decision on when to reopen the park has now been postponed until at least Monday.

Gold Coast Tourism chief executive Martin Winter is confident Dreamworld and the wider tourism industry in the city will recover from the tragedy. “Clearly a tragic incident like this will have an impact on the tourism industry,” Mr Winter said.

“We’re very confident that as time goes on, the breadth and the depth of the industry, and the underlying fundamentals will mean that the industry is forging ahead as it always has.” Dreamworld has also defended its safety record against criticism from the Australian Workers’ Union, which says it has been warning about problems at the park for years.

The theme park’s management say the ride was inspected as recently as last month.

Ms Grace said the AWU’s response was right.

“They did the right thing. They put in what their concerns were, whether anyone could have predicted this particular event happening is very difficult and, of course, those concerns should be raised,” she said.

— With wires