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Mr Naumann can’t cant recall any times where a risk assessment is completed on a ride during its annual maintenance. Mr Naumann was asked if there were any maintenance issues from October 2015 to October 2016. Mr Naumann stated that there are always maintenance issues that occur or any ride. After an annual inspection a ride must be run a certain number of times and then signed off, this includes completing the daily maintenance checklist before the ride can return to service. During February 2016, an additional sensor was added at the start of the conveyor that would shut down the ride if a raft was sitting there for too long. Mr Naumanns role during this was to ensure contractors didn’t overlap when undertaking those works. Mr Naumann was asked if there was a person in charge of the maintenance and upgrades of the ride as there was no original manufacturer to refer to. Mr Naumann confirmed there was no one who undertook this role and stated that there should be someone in that position We have just adjourned for lunch. I unfortuantly won’t be here for the second half today. I’m having some family problems that I’ve got to take care of. Rest assured that I will be back again tomorrow and live posting again. Sorry for calling it early today but I hope my coverage so far was informative

Arrow loopers are like the coaster equivalent of an 80's corolla; they are known to be extremely reliable and run forever unless a park doesn't maintain it properly which Dreamworld has apparently done. A ride like Hot Wheels could easily run for 15 more years, but Dreamworld ends up shortening that by not maintaining it properly and letting the ride look like this: When they struggle to keep their rides looking anything other than appalling then we have problems here. This ride hasn't been repainted in 17 years. No other park I can think of has gone this long without repainting a ride. And if they struggle to maintain a type of coaster that every other park on the planet can do, then we're having problems here. Rides like 50 year old Arrow mine trains are being maintained by companies like Six Flags with barely any problems yet here we are with the second youngest Arrow looper being closed for over two months. Or, heaven forbid - keep a seven year old Maurer Skyloop closed down for nearly 6 months because of maintenance. And this crap doesn't happen just to Dreamworld. It also happened when they owned AMF Bowling back in the day, I work at an AMF centre as a technician, and I can tell you that Ardent cheaped out on maintenance there. When Timezone bought AMF earlier this year the safety standards hugely improved and checks became much more frequent. This company needs to be shut down or end up going the way of Dick Smith. What has come out of the inquest is telling of how appalling the safety standards of Ardent actually are, had TRRR's accident not woke them up the situation would probably be even more worse. And I still don't think they are getting it. I've said it a few times already, so apologies if I've repeated myself here, but I can't stand having this company run a Gold Coast icon like this into the ground like what Sunway did to Wonderland.

Mr Nauman confirmed what aspects of the slats were checked during annual maintenance. If new slats were required, Mr Nauman would be the person to order the new slats. Mr Nauman states that in 2016 that the entire conveyor chain was replaced and the slats were removed and inspected. An independent company inspected the chain and advised the entire chain should be replaced but they did not assess the slats. Some of the slats were replaced during the chain replacement. Mr Naumann never inspected or looked at any other rapids ride types in Australia or internationally. During the chain replacement, the slats were then reinstalled and alternated between new planks and good condition old planks. Mr Naumann was asked about the engineering meeting where it was stated that “repairs and maintenance spending needs to stop, only CAPEX” Mr Naumann advised that this would have come from the general manager of maintenance. Mr Naumann became a qualified fitter/turner after he commenced his role at Dreamworld. Mr Neumann used to work for a foundry in a maintenance planning position. Mr Naumann isn’t aware of what the operators are and aren’t made aware of, in relation to maintenance issues. Mr Naumann was asked about an observation from WHS about corrosion in the construction of the rapids ride. The corrosion would have been there more than a year before the incident. Me Naumann advised it was “probably duly noted and scheduled for correction action when it could be done or when it could be afforded” Mr Naumanns role didn’t include making decisions on whether maintenance would occur based on whether it could be afforded. That decision was made by the finance department and the general manager of Engineering. If the maintenance issue was identified that raised concern about guest safety, the decision would not be made bu a single person.

Mr Murphy states that there is no pressure put on him or other maintenance members to get rides reopened as soon as possible. A ride will not open until the relevant maintenance person can inspect and repair the ride if needed. If an outside specialist I’d required, the ride will not re-open until they have also inspected the ride. A maintenance supervisor can arrange outside help without gaining approval from their manager. Mr Murphy’s understanding was that when there was a code 6 breakdown called for TRR, the procedure was to shut off one pump. Mr Murphy has just finished giving evidence. Grant Nauman Maintenance planner at Ardent Leisure(Dreamworld) Commenced role in April 2007 Qualified fitter and turner. Grants role is primarily administrative but has filled in as a maintenance supervisor when required. Mr Nauman wasn’t provided any training in regards to the national maintenance standards. Mr Nauman is not responsible for daily inspections. Mr Nauman was brought on to help implement the new electronic maintenance filing database. All maintenance requests will go into the electronic system unless it is determined as an urgent maintenance request. Each non urgent request had a work timeframe of around 7 days. Mr Nauman was in charge of ordering parts, labour and additional assets for a ride. Prior to 2016, a weekly checklist was generated by the Maintenance Planner with all outstanding work that was required. The work was then split up and allocated. Mr Nauman reported to the general manager of engineering. Mr Nauman no longer takes on the role as maintenance supervisor when staff is short.

The hearing starts early so I missed the first few minutes. Stephen Murphy Employed since 2013 Maintenance team leader/Fitter welder Responsible for a team of 4 mechanics. A pressure gauge would be used to check raft inflation pressure. TRR will be closed after 2 breakdowns within a day but there was a team leader meeting to change that to the ride closing after 3 breakdowns within a day. Mr Murphy can’t recall why it was changed. Previous employer had provided WHS training to complete risk assessments. No one ever raised an issue with the spacing of the slats on the conveyor. So it was never identified as a “pinch point risk”. A thunder river rapids alarm would warrant its own emergency response team. Other occurrences that require an emergency response team are the likes of an animal escape or a “code blue” medical emergency. Mr Murphy wasn’t aware of any previous incidents on TRR. A memo went out in early 2016 to TRR unload operators to be extra vigilant while monitoring he conveyor. Mr Murphy was not aware of this memo. The memo states that if there is an issue identified with the conveyor or brackets, to bring all rafts home. This would include bringing all rafts back through the “unsafe” conveyor into the unload station. Mr Murphy was never informed or aware of the incident in 2014 where a staff member was fired after shutting off a pump causing a raft to become stuck on the conveyor. Mr Murphy was shown an unlabelled e-stop on the control panel and he was not sure what the button did as he never used it. Part of the daily maintenance checklist was to inspect the conveyor but the e-stop at the unload area wasn’t checked daily. It was checked “occasionally” The e-stop on the control panel was never tested as it is not part of the daily checks as maintenance test the ride and not the controls. Mr Murphy stated that an e-stop is required by law to state that it is an e-stop but not what it actually does. The breakdown reports are kept at the main control panel for the ride. After a ride had the same fault 3 times within the one day, a supervisor will inspect and advise if the ride can reopen. The conveyor was checked daily for chain alignment, chain wear, slat alignment, slat wear but not if the slats were “bowed or warped”

Is this thread super IMPORTANT or are you YELLING?

Hope y'all are not too sick of these reviews, because here come my personal opinions on the event. Mazes: I will agree with most of the reviews and say House of Kain is definitely the winning maze of this year. Whoever designed this one certainly had way too much fun doing it. The scares were about average, but the uniqueness and impressiveness of the sets and makeup were what made this maze. It's definitely one you have to go through slowly if you want to take everything in. This maze was definitely a step in the right direction, and the park should definitely try to make more unique mazes like this. I reckon a non-IP maze every year or two would be a great idea. Even with that said, I'm sure it would be possible to make a maze as unique as HoK and still follow an IP - there are plenty of horror movies out there which aren't your typical "serial killer on the loose" movie. 8/10. Leatherface was not a highlight for me. The thing that this maze has going for it is its reasonably long layout... but if you're going to have a long layout you need to make sure you have the right number of actors to fill the entire maze. I just felt there were too many "dead" areas, with no scare actors. I actually found that most of the scares came from loud bangs instead of the actors, which really shouldn't be the case. As other people said, it's similar to Halloween, but I actually prefer Halloween, as its sets are a little more diverse. Leatherface's set was mostly just unthemed hallways and "outdoor" areas. The campervan scene was pretty cool though. 5/10. Halloween I enjoyed just as much as last year, possibly more. It was by far the scariest maze of the night for me. This one was in fact a walk-on when I did it, which was great. 7/10 Jigsaw I wasn't a big fan of last year, although this year I found it to be a little better. Still not a big fan of the sets for this one though, being mostly empty hallways with strobe lights. One or two great jump-scares though. 6/10. Precincts and atmosphere: The Sci-Fear precinct was very impressive, although the actors in this area certainly weren't that scary. On the other hand, the actors in the Bloodwood precinct were really trying their hardest to scare people, although they didn't have a lot of space to work with. The Possessed precinct could hardly be described as one. Limited actors, with the focus being on the live music. I agree with there being too many safe zones, although they didn't stop some of the actors ending up in them trying to scare people (and I have no complaints about that - if you're going to fright nights you shouldn't be expecting to be "safe" anywhere in the park). One thing that I noticed about this year was that the in-park music had changed a bit. Last year the music was much more eerie and set the tone of the event very well, but this year the music was mainly rock and heavy metal, which definitely didn't set the right atmosphere. Apart from that though the overall atmosphere of the park was great. Overall, I would say this event is a very slight step up from last year's. Some improvements, but also plenty of things that still need improving to make this a perfect event. I think to get Fright Nights on the right track they need: A more diverse maze lineup (but HoK is a step in the right direction for this) - going to 5 or 6 mazes has been talked about, but I don't think there's much point doing so if the mazes aren't diverse enough More creative scares - especially in the case of Leatherface, the scares felt very repetitive. Again, HoK improved on this, one of my favourite scares of the night was the one where the person jumped out of the body. Better sets - Jigsaw and Leatherface had pretty dull sets. We know the maze designers know how to make a great set, so why do they keep making unthemed corridors a part of their mazes? Longer mazes and more actors - Jigsaw especially is not a long maze. Leatherface is the opposite, but just doesn't have enough actors to fill it. Larger precincts - there are plenty of large areas in the park that could be used as a precinct, such as the Wild West area or the Arkham courtyard. They don't have to try to shove a precinct into a small area such as the lawn out the front of Superman.

Update Time.

Thanks heaps @themagicianI always love your updates. For @Gold Coast Amusement Force and those who are struggling to imagine what it looks like. I have drawn a picture to help you visualise the crane and what it is doing.

No one knows. Feel like this topic has run its course, and in record time too.

And for comparison, here is how they changed the track

Volcano Bay Beach opening in December. Fingers crossed the budget holds out and we see the Volcano rockwork 'waterfall' come to fruition. Also some nice lush landscaping and private cabanas would be nice.

I recently went on a trip to North Korea and visited the Kaeson Youth Park. It is centrally located in Pyongyang - a short drive from Kim Il Sung square, next to the Arch of Triumph (photos taken from the top of the Arch). Here is a google maps link for anyone interested: https://goo.gl/maps/sRmidMu3WRk The park is fairly small and only open in the evenings. It is next to Kim Il Sung University. The park is mostly moderate thrill rides aimed at the university students. You can see from the entrance that Pyongyang is a very safe city - there was no high fencing, just a simple rolling gate with no locks. That bathroom tile aesthetic in the buildings is extremely common in North Korea. They will tile the external walls of 30 Storey buildings on every floor. The park had a really fun suspended flying coaster with an egg-beater lift hill. I'm not sure of the model, but it was a really smooth, really fun ride. It has two inversions. You load onto the ride in a standing position and the operator closes a cage over you. You're tilted into the flying position by a large steel bar just before the lift hill. The two inversions are fairly intense considering you're not actually strapped into the cage, but they whip you around so fast you never really feel like you're gonna fall. They also had 3 Zamperla rides, a Disko, a Power Surge (i didn't photograph it but you can see all three rides in a row in this pic), and a Frisbee (with the most terrifyingly loose restraint I've ever experienced). In addition, there was some dodgem cars (the Korean's are really violent drivers), A small pirate ship, and an S&S Shot 'n' drop. There was a burger place inside the park (which was closed) but there were a bunch of street stalls outside selling snacks and soft-drinks. Unfortunately, while foreigners can visit the park, we aren't allowed to buy stuff from the local stores since they only accept the local Korean currency (North Korean Won) - which foreigners are not allowed to use. Foreigners can pay in Euro or Chinese Yuan. We had to pay 10 Euro Entry to the park, and the individual rides ranged between 3 and 5 Euro each. The park was quite empty - probably about as busy as you would expect Luna Park Melbourne to be on a random Friday night. It was National Day on the Sunday, and a Long Weekend, so people had a bunch of other stuff to do. I didn't have a lot of time there and I wanted to go on most of the rides, so I only managed to get a few photos (and some videos). I only took my iPhone, so I apologise for the quality. I've got a couple of videos, if people are really interested I can upload them but they're really just of the coaster and the general park. If I can get more photos and videos from the people I was traveling with, I'll upload them too if people are interested.

Perfect new themed land for a future Dreamworld upgrade. "Construction Site Land". They literally already have most of the themeing in place!

I would say these forums are definitely a place for learning and asking questions, just as much as they are for news

What do Dreamworld's 3 biggest roller coasters all have in common? None of them have reopening dates anymore!!!! Happy school holidays kids!

If they need help with ride signage, I know a guy... Are you sure? "Many" as in, many people on Parkz? Or "Many" as in "many" general punters. Because i'll be honest - i don't even think many on Parkz remember that in that much detail - I knew MDMC had VR trialled, but I never knew it had a name... I'm curious as to how many of her supposed 92 titles the mod team at Parkz went through before deciding to lead with that one... Funny as it is, this story is a little more low brow than usual Parkz standards... I don't really think you're being fair here. Sure - getting the right combination into google produced a porn star. hahahah thats funny! make fun of Dreamworld everyone! The problem here is that everything else is so particular when it comes to trademark. As Parkz rightly points out at the start of the article, the name registered is SkyRyder. No space, uppercase R. The google search you did was "Sky Ryder" with a space. When I click your link, all the results I get are for the Ryder cup golf tournament (on Sky Sports channel). Interestingly enough, and again on YOUR google search link, the front page also links to the Sky Ryder zipline at 'The Waterfront, Okoboji (that's in Iowa). Nothing on this first page of results returns a porn star for me - and that's with 'safe search' switched off. As a matter of fact, try as I might, I can't get google to bring that particular personality up without spelling her name correctly... with an 'e'. When I try googling the actual registered trademark "SkyRyder" without a space, the results returned include a Metal band by that name... but even in that search, google assumes I spelled it incorrectly, and suggests "SkyRider" which - when you click through, then links to the Sky Rider at Luna Park Melbourne. As easily as I could have - with safe search off, and using your search terms, I still couldn't find it without the 'e'. I'm sorry guys - but i think you really missed the mark this time.

The first witness for the day he just been called. Gen Cruz who began at Dreamworld in September 2014 as a mechanical engineer. Mr Cruz would approach Peter Gardner (a senior maintenance staff member) to raise any concerns about the ride. Mr Cruz and Mr Gardner were the only two people at the time who had formal tertiary qualifications. My Cruz was asked if there should be recourse management after the event of a critical incident, such as a near miss. Mr Cruz was not aware of two near miss incidents in 2014 on rides nor was he aware of the 2014 TRR raft collision that happened. He was only made aware of this, days after the incident when he located the risk assessment completed after the raft collision. Mr Cruz was shown photos from the 2001 raft collision and he agreed with barristers that there should have been changes made but he was not aware of the incident. Mr Cruz was never shown cctv footage of the 2014 incident as it still exists. Mr Cruz maintains that this is the first time he has heard of a raft collision incident in 2014 but doesn’t agree that it would have been helpful if he was made aware of the incident as risk assessments are not a part of his role. Mr Cruz was asked if there was someone who was made aware or in charge of any incidents when they occur in terms of recourse management. Mr Cruz’s response “I don’t know”. Mr Cruz then later agreed that it would be helpful for engineering staff to be shown CCTV footage of the 2014 incident, or any critical incidents that occurred. Mr Cruz states that when there is a near miss, it is a collaborate effort to perform recourse management. Sina (new engineer hired in 2017) was the only other person with formal engineering qualifications outside of Mr Cruz and Mr Gardner. We were then shown the termination letter of the 2014 staff member. During the 2014 incident, there was a low air alarm and the ride operator shut the ride down without checking where all the rafts where. This resulted in a raft bottoming out ontop of the conveyor, one floating into the reservoir, and another colliding with the raft in the conveyor, pushing it down the conveyor until the conveyor was turned off. The ride operator at the time was only aware of the raft in the reservoir when the photo shop called and informed them. At this point, the ride op escalated the situation to a code 6 but has not followed the procedure to initiate shut down. Which states that the ride much be shut down in any situation where there is a risk of seriously injury to guests or staff or damage to equipment. The ride op did not raise the rapid ride alarm but instead restarted the conveyor when there was a raft at the bottom that was at a large risk of flipping due to the increased water pressure.

Does it ever go down for extended maintenance, if so, contact Dreamworld immidiately.

Its really simple. If you want to maximise capacity on SE you don't actually have to modify the ride at all. When Superman first opened it ran with about 8 operators! 1 Greeter 1 Grouper 4 Load Attendants 1 Unload Attendant 1 Panel Operator With this sort of Ops a Que back to. the start of the lockers took about 15mins to run through. Purchase a 3rd train for rebuilds so you always have 2 trains running every day and you will have crazy capacity. But mostly it's just about operations.

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So here is a trip update from Adventure World: For a non major ride off-season lots of minor things have happened and due to a very wet winter a lot of painting and installation of shade sails have been delayed and are not quiet finished. Animal Kingdom is closed for renovations Surf Shack and Tiki Bar are closed for renovations Rampage has had all new seats installed to try and make the ride more comfortable. These I have found worse. Black Widow has had a complete new repaint. Which is not finished yet. The flooring and signage needs to be finished. This is due to weather I believe. Inferno gondala has been painted. A themed water fountain was added mid way up the hill to Kraken. New viewing area next to skull rock. More shade added the whole way up the hill. Not a fan of how it looks up the top but it was needed. More picnic benches have been added around the park. Animal area closed. New Viewing area Rocky Rapids was closed on opening day but has soon since re-opened. The view from the viewing area. Goliath Black Widow with its new paint and new restraint system. The new water fountain mid way up the hill. The new shading Surf Shack closed for renovation. Kahuna Falls was apparently closed for a few days. But is now re-opened. Not a huge fan of how it finishes at the top. The Tiki bar is getting a renovation. Looks to open soon. The Rampage with new seats. If you look Bounty's Revenge's sign is still visible from under the main entrance building.

Is this a statement, a question, or a thought? Either way, i'm glad the community is making good use of the fountain of improbability.

AlexB, nobody wants to read your essay on "The Misrepresentation of Dreamworld attractions in Theme Park Media". It's not that big of a deal.

They are probably getting pretty sick of having to push back Tower of Terror, it has been pushed back 6 times now. Its really disappointing that 4 large attractions (when you include Hydrocoaster) are having EXTENDED maintenance done during the school holidays. That is taking things a bit far. Its unlikely that we will be seeing Tower opening anytime soon as the attraction hasnt even had testing occur yet. Normally they spend days on end testing that particular ride prior to an opening. In saying that though, it is certainly better for them to close the rides, replace essential components and have them operating in a reliable manner rather than using band aid fixes and then facing constant breakdowns later on simply leading to even more maintenance periods. Make sure they are working 100% before opening. I get a bit sick of rides from DW opening after ridiculously long periods of maintenance only to close again a few days later (like we saw with The Claw in May) Problem is, these rides that us Parkz members complain to be crappy, unreliable attractions (like TOT) have been forced that way by Dreamworld and similar models dont have near as many issues. DW: take a deap breath, buy the parts you need and spend money on the REAL maintenance that your attractions need, and take your time if thats what is necessary to ensure a positive, long-term reopening of an attraction. (Although to be honest, I have a hunch that current long term maintenance which is occuring likely has understaffing to blame for the push backs).