RIDE AWAITS LIFTOFF
DREAMWORLD staff have taken their first rides on the long-awaited Sky Voyager as the world-class gondola sits ready to launch for paying guests – although when that will happen is up in the air.
The ride is yet to be granted registration by the State Government, whose tough new laws on amusement park rides came into effect this week.
While Sky Voyager is fully operational, the park is still working on the internal training, testing and procedures required to commission it.
CEO John Osborne said the park was working with the regulator to have Sky Voyager registered, but would ensure the process was not rushed.
“I suppose in the eyes of our guests and people watching from the outside, it has been delayed,” he said. “I think the expectation that it could open around Christmas was a bit ambitious.
“We’re making sure, as we always would, that every i is dotted and every t is crossed, so we’re going to the absolute nth degree to make sure that all of the training, commissioning and work required to open the ride is a new benchmark for the industry.”
A spokesman for Workplace Health and Safety Queensland said it received a design registration application for a new ride from Dreamworld on November 7 last year.
The department said it was awaiting additional safety information, including a compliance check of components used in the ride, before it would issue the registration.
Mr Osborne has himself, as part of the commissioning process, ridden Sky Voyager so many times he’s lost count – and is certain it will be a turning point for Dreamworld.
“When you’re sitting on it, you feel as though you’re flying. It’s meant to be skydivers diving out of a plane and you go from landscape to landscape and lots of little thrills happen while you’re doing that,” he said.
“It stops with a really spectacular finale which I’ll have to let everybody see when they get there.”
Six months ago, Mr Osborne took on arguably the toughest turnaround in Australia, taking the reins of the battered Gold Coast icon, which has struggled to regain trust and visitors since the fatal failure of the Thunder River Rapids ride in 2016.
Coroner James McDougall is expected to hand down recommendations after his inquest into the deaths of Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi, and Cindy Low in coming months.
“We’ve undertaken to implement all the findings, in conjunction with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland and the theme park industry, and I just think that will be a really important next step for everybody,” Mr Osborne said of the inquest.
Ardent Leisure logged a $21.8 million loss for the first six months of the financial year as costs from the tragedy continued.
However, the company said it expected to return to positive cash flow in the next 12 months.
Mr Osborne said a focus and investment in safety and guest experience was bringing back the visitors, and benefiting the park’s 1000 local staff.
An injection of funds from parent group Ardent Leisure, which secured a $225 million refinance deal, will allow the park to make two major announcements before the end of the year.
“We’re scouring the world for the best manufacturers of thrill rides,” Mr Osborne said.
“What I can say is that the next big announcement will be of a world-class thrill ride.”
Beyond the next thrill rides, Mr Osborne is looking decades ahead. The former casino boss is not ruling out a flutter in the gaming sector for the Coomera site.
“Anything in the entertainment and leisure area is on the agenda but at the moment we’re way off being ready to do anything like that,” he said. “Five to 10 years from now, I see this site being the potential to be an absolutely world-class leisure precinct that includes a theme park with a lot of new and innovative rides, attractions and waterslides, a bigger and better animal display, hotel or accommodation that’s shorterterm in nature – either on our site or adjacent to our site.”
IT STOPS WITH A REALLY SPECTACULAR FINALE WHICH I’LL HAVE TO LET EVERYBODY SEE WHEN THEY GET THERE. JOHN OSBORNE