Dreamworld’s parent company Ardent Leisure has been fined $3.6 million by a Gold Coast court over the deaths of four people on the theme park’s Thunder River Rapids Ride in October 2016.
In sentencing, the company Magistrate Pamela Dowse said “The defendant operated the most iconic amusement park in the country.”
“Complete and blind trust was placed in the defendant by every guest that rode the Thunder River Rapids Ride and those guests were extremely vulnerable.”
Ardent had faced three charges laid by Queensland’s Office of Industrial Relations at a hearing in Southport Magistrate’s Court on Monday afternoon.
The company pleaded guilty to three charges, with potential fines of up to $4.5 million, laid after a coroner found “unjustifiable” failings in Dreamworld’s safety management.
Sydney mother Cindy Low, along with Canberra mother Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi, were killed on October 25, 2016, when the theme park’s Thunder River Rapids Ride malfunctioned.
Dreamworld chief executive John Osborne outside court after the hearing apologised unreservedly on behalf of the company for the “past circumstances and failures” at the theme park that resulted in the deaths.
And in a separate statement to the ASX yesterday afternoon the company said “Ardent accepts responsibility for this tragedy without qualification or reservation. Following the first public hearing in June 2018, Ardent indicated that it would implement all of the Coroner’s recommendations, and more recently it pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to all three charges brought by the Work Health and Safety Prosecutor.
“Today we accept the Court’s decision to impose a fine of $3.6 million which is the largest fine in Queensland history for a workplace tragedy.”
The fallout has hit Arden hard, with revenue down and big losses incurred. The impact has been compounded by the pandemic, lockdowns, border closures (with NSW and Victoria) and social distancing rules.
In the year to June 30, the company saw revenue fall $85 million, or about 17%, to $398.3 million after it was forced to temporarily close its Main Event centres in the US and its Australian attractions, which include Whitewater World and SkyPoint, in March.
The company’s full-year loss more than doubled to $136 million.
Shares in the company rose 2% to 50.5 cents on investor relief that the fines were not larger.
