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Getting a written warning for that is insane lol. So how did you guys get into the booths then I'm assuming it would be part of the path near the backwards drop right?

There was always a window, and you couldn't see into the booth from the ride when it was in normal operation unless you really looked for them. I got a written warning for that incident though from an ex park manager who was always very grumpy. Some people may know exactly who I'm talking about, shares a name with an ex wiggle lol. The other operators thought it was hilarious, and the riders did too.

Anyway back to the thread title. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CZAN7zq9a/

I know rides entering QLD have to comply with: AS 3533 EN 13814-1 ISO 17842-1 ATSM F2291 "includes assessing the loads on critical components" where is this completed in Australia, and who is doing it? I know who verifies all of Mack Rides calculations and the company isn't based in Australia.

Don't encourage him.

I did say "these days" being present tense. Important to note, particularly in QLD significant changes have occurred since 2015 with regards to the legislation and the introduction of the code of practice. There is a greater responsibility on all parties involved in the process, the engineer, the operator and the regulator. Love your optimism though...

Don't stress people, according to @Levram__the same Australian registered and qualified engineers checked GL's critical components. //s😂😉 Do I think the arm will fail on King Claw. NO Is there a chance one day a critical component will fail on a ride in Australia. YES

Regardless of who the OEM is for a device, Intamin or a cheap Chinese device, these days the risk of such a serious design flaw in a device entering or being installed in Australia is mitigated by a very stringent design registration process. Which requires one of very few, Australian registered and qualified engineers to verify the design of a amusement device in order for the regulator to issue design registration, among many other things. That includes assessing the loads on critical components etc. Most states follow the same guidelines with some minor variation here or there. For example I believe Victoria allows devices pre 1995 to operate without design registration, but that's being proposed to change.

Workplace health and safety one year during their annual audit campaign went on a bit of a rampage around appropriate work areas illumination to manage the risk of fatigue.

The original design of the room was lit so that the operator wouldn't be visible. The operator can turn on the light in the room (they did this I think when Theme Park Worldwide visited so they could wave) but maybe they have video monitors in there, and they're brighter now?

Maybe I'm wrong but did that the lift room the staff member sits in have a window back in the day as well cause u can see the staff member so clearly now but I never Remember seeing it back in the day. Were the other staff laughing when you accidently hit the estop because of a Huntsman cause that's a valid reason lmao.

Now this is a total load of crap... absolute garbage procedure if you ask me lol. But I guess a station stop isn't as common as it used to be with the moving platform. I can tell you that from opening until I left the company in 2013 at least that an evacuation was never required from a ride stop as a general rule of thumb. However if you were to do an evac it would normally be a ride drain. Fire is a different story, we don't have time for that we just gotta get people off haha. I still have trauma from sitting in the lift room, involving a rather large huntsman... and me running out of there and accidentally elbowing the e-stop in the process! Good times

Thanks for this. On a quick google search this company comes from an area of china (henan province) well known for making rides that are cheap, extremely low quality and straight up unsafe by design. So unsafe that most of them are illegal in western countries. These companies don't provide after sale service that folks like intamin do. Lots of rides coming out of here cause injuries all the time, there's a fair few videos of the arms snapping in half on gyro swings that are going around the internet and nearly all of these installs have come from this area (video attached for more info) King Claw or any intamin ride for that matter are well built and supported by their manufacturer, have properly designed systems with multiple fail safes, are made of A+ grade steel thats welded properly and are expensive on purpose because of these things and more. It is a waste of time to compare it to the ride in saudi arabia because they are nothing alike apart from the basic design and ride experience. One ride is designed at the lowest cost possible at the expense of safety and the other is designed to be safe from the beginning.

I don't know why the flume was reprofiled, but the boats running along the bottom seems to be the desired outcome. They occasionally fiddle with the water level, but if it's raised too high it ends up flooding the ghost town. That makes sense. I thought someone had told me once that it used to be the procedure to non shutoff the water, but that would've been long before I ever operated the ride. Also with the new station: if the boats stop out of position (such as when a ride stop/station stop gets pressed), then that requires a full evacuation, because the boats need to be manually jogged out of the station.

MM lighting is great but the temple and pathway requires more work. If DW were to permanently install chain lights, it should be like this:⏬ and not like this ⏬

Yep agree - at the same time, I kinda like the atmosphere that would give dockside\by the river. There is clearly a need for lighting through that tunnel area also, and I think the festoon really suit the look (though they should get Pico back in to style it a bit better).

From when I worked on Wild West Falls in the early 2010's, 99% of downtime was due to guest behaviour (i.e standing up on the turntable, or filming) when a ride stop would be initiated. Then when it came to restarting, the ride would chuck a tantrum and instead require a full evacuation. However like every ride, it occasionally had its issues but overall it was very reliable when it was in its original state. The new boats, station etc have pretty much destroyed the ride for reliability and capacity as well and honestly I kind of wish they would have just put it out of its misery. However we know that any replacement we would have got would not be up to the standards that the ride originally had anyway. In regards to the post about the pumps being shut off to do an evacuation, that was always the procedure. A ride stop normally could be reset and was used to stop the ride for a mechanical issue. Anything involving a risk of drowning (or water related) would be an emergency stop which automatically shuts off all the pumps. An evacuation was not required for a ride stop as the ride can be restarted (normally). But if the E-stop was pushed, the pumps would drain and it would instantly become a full ride evacuation.

Building approval is in for the refurb of the building at the front of the park. ALTERATIONS TO AN EXISTING CAFE TO CONVERT TO STARS BAR AND DINING AREA - PCG 00116953 I wonder if STARS BAR is the final name.

Because the park down the road announced their new rides opening and we need to beat them to the punch.

I've seen the lights in the park and they look temporary.

The zipper is appearing at North Lakes from Friday. https://www.facebook.com/BNEthrillfest/

Yep, AAA made rides don't fall apart in Australia. Cough, cough, GL. Yep, people don't die in Australia because of our rigours of Australian safety and operational practices. Cough, couch, RR. Does Australia have an Australian safety and operational practices guide?

But if the boats still bottom out through the flume section of the ride, I definitely don’t think things have been ironed out. It makes the experience so uncomfortable and turned this ride from a ‘must do’ into a ‘if the queue isn’t too long’.

@DaptoFunlandGuy here you go! Photos by @Theme Park Girl Considering there are lighting rigs set up in these photos and the night markets weren’t on this weekend, my guess is this was all set up for a private event. They’ve also got the DWF Gala at the start of next month which will be held in Rivertown/Tiger Island.

Perhaps you could share the photos? There's plenty of world class theme parks that use festoon lights for night lighting certain areas. I doubt they're all sourced from bunnings though, and not necessarily a cheap option for sure... In Rivertown's case, given Murray built an entire bush-mechanic's workshop, is it that unreasonable to think that maybe they figured out how to string up some lights? Honestly - without even seeing it, it's a far better option and fits the atmosphere of Rivertown. If they wanted to be cheap they could have just mounted a few LED floodlights on the existing buildings and ruined the feel of the area entirely. guarantee they'd have been cheaper too. I'll wait until I see it in person but given your recent post history i'm inclined to reserve judgment.