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Fantastic news, this will be an incredible ride. Thought it's worth commending Dreamworld and their marketing team for this one - they've truly set the standard on the proper way to market rides in Australia from here on in. Everything has been executed perfectly and they haven't missed a beat. Really hope this is a fresh start for the park and just a taste of what's to come.

Video of first riders today. Assume park employees or family/friends of. video courtesy DW Golden Years https://youtu.be/DFica6VMGhY Gold Coast’s Dreamworld to launch its $32m Steel Taipan coaster on for 40th birthday on December 15 DREAMWORLD is set to usher in the summer of the snake after announcing the launch date of its $32m Steel Taipan roller coaster, just in time for Christmas. From December 15, riders will be able to experience all 1.2km of the 105km/h, triple-launch coaster with its multiple inversions and spinning gondola. The launch date coincides with the theme park’s 40th birthday, which will be celebrated with a range of additional entertainment, giveaways and fun for team members and guests. “We couldn’t think of a better gift for our 40th birthday than the opening of the biggest new attraction in Dreamworld’s history, offering a new, world-class thrill experience during the school holidays, and just in time for the border reopening,” Dreamworld CEO Greg Yong said. “Steel Taipan is a truly fantastic addition to our attraction offering, featuring the Southern Hemisphere’s first triple launch system and the world’s first spinning rear seats. “You’ve got to feel it to believe it, so we encourage our locals to visit from the 15th to see what all the hype is about.” The Steel Taipan project, the biggest single investment in Dreamworld’s history, has created more than 200 jobs, with about 98 per cent of contractor packages awarded to southeast Queensland companies. Mr Yong said the Steel Taipan was likely the largest private sector tourism attraction investment since the pandemic began, and hoped aviation, accommodation, and other tourism businesses would benefit from the visitors drawn to it. Shareholders in Dreamworld parent company Ardent Leisure will be hoping the roller coaster boosts sales of the park’s annual passes which range from $99-$119. https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/business/gold-coast-business/gold-coasts-dreamworld-to-launch-its-32m-steel-taipan-coaster-on-for-40th-birthday-on-december-15/news-story/f08ce5246f1e9727b81eeb356ce17e85

***Trigger Warning - self harm and death*** I am a volunteer in the QLD SES. A volunteer however has the same rights to workers compensation as a paid employee - they are deemed an employee for workcover purposes. SES volunteers are sometimes right beside police officers in missing persons, and searches for bodies. The units I have been attached to over the years have been involved in finding the remains of Daniel Morcombe, Alison Baden Clay and many other lesser known deaths, self harm and similar. It is a nature of the job no more or less than a police officer might expect to encounter - although the exposure to trauma is much higher likelihood for Police. I experienced a level of PTSD after a self harm case with a bad ending. All mental health related treatment, time off from my (paid) employment, medication etc was covered by Queensland workcover. I recovered and didn't experience long term impacts, though talking about it does have its effects. If it did impact me long term, I've no doubt I could have pursued compensation and i'm sure that, if I had the psychological evidence to support my claim, i've no doubt the insurer would have paid out. Never for a minute did I contemplate that liability could land with the person's estate, or a corporation connected to the case. Because it is exposure to trauma based on your employment, and it is your employer who is responsible for your safe working environment. This is my own personal opinion. I'm not a lawyer. I would be very keen to understand how Dreamworld would be liable for this injury, when it is his employer and employment that placed him there, not Dreamworld. As for what this (former?) officer is claiming - Every person reacts differently to such trauma. I've attended numerous incidents - even as field commander - and seen some gruesome sights, but that one case just hit me and i still don't know why. I've no doubt his symptoms and condition are legitimate and quite happy to argue anyone who suggests otherwise. That said, Police would attend gruesome traffic accidents and industrial manslaughter cases in factories and on farms with some level of regularity that I struggle to align the Dreamworld incident any differently to any other trauma incident that would place liability on the park. My 2c.

The question that should be asked is - why is it a pile on? Are people bullying those with views different to theirs, or are people simply calling into question a questionable statement with facts and evidence that disprove that statement? I've been away for a week, and yes Gaz, looks like Mic drop! I would like to make a contribution here (and just to add - my first day back at work today so i've been writing this most of the day - well before the rest of today's comments were added!) I'll try not to reagitate the same ideals already mentioned... @Slick has spent a lot of time providing well researched sources, so in those respects i'll just say 'ditto'. I would like to add: Just going to say 'citation needed' on this 90% figure. If you're against getting this particular vaccine then you are "anti-vaccine" regardless of your reasons why. That's how words work. It is getting a bit over-used, and some may find the label distasteful, but i'm pretty sure that it is a label that is meant to be seen as distasteful for a reason. I just want to back this one up with a personal story to share my own experiences... About 7 weeks ago, my wife experienced an episode that scared the crap out of our whole family, and spent a week in hospital*. We were questioned at initial triage whether we had been vaccinated, when, where, did we have the vac card showing the dose and batch numbers, and all of this was logged by the registrar. This was double checked and verified by several wonderful medical professionals in the ED during the initial days. Nothing was eliminated at that time. Nothing was palmed off. Everything was explored. CT scans, MRIs, even lumbar punctures were explored to try to determine what was at play. Even days later while she was on ward - they were still seeking opinions of specialists in various fields - including vax related fields - as to possible causes as nothing they did was turning up results. Fast forward a little and we've ruled out at this point that the vax was a factor (completely ruled out) but we discussed this with the doctors and they even had a specialist in immunology come down to discuss with us at length what the possibilities were before finally ruling it out. Nothing was palmed off, and everything was explored to find the answers. TL:DR - wife had a medical episode and one of the first things the ED did was check vax status and any possible impacts it may have had, and continued to explore the possibilities that the vax had contributed until they were able to determine - with evidence - that it had not. (*She isn't fully recovered at this point, but we have a fair idea of the cause and the treatment and its just now a matter of time for everything to work out and fingers crossed no lasting impacts) I felt the need to share this story because I am getting sick of generalised statements without even basic details given to support the events. Medical Professionals Silenced? 😮 Sounds like a black bag job. Cold war era stuff. Can you provide any links showing any of these suspensions or sackings? Are they being silenced? Or are they being discredited by being unable to support their assertions? Are the accreditation organisations revoking the accreditation because their allegations have no basis in science, as opposed to a coverup? More generalisations without basic details. Heart Related Reactions? What about these heart statistics? Are they in Australia? Worldwide? Other countries more prone to heart disease? Were those cases medically susceptible to heart disease or defect? What sort of reactions were they? How many died? What was the total pool? 870 out of 1000 is huge, but 870 out of a million isn't much different to some side effects of other proven vaccines in long term use... It sounds like a scary number, but it reminds me of this meme: 870 sounds like a big problem - but it becomes the trolley problem. Chief Health Officers Backtracked! CHO's should backtrack. They should act on the best information they have available at the time. In the early days, the advice was that masks were not required except in a medical setting, this was later expanded to a point where for many, mask wearing is part of the daily routine - even outside. Even now that the restrictions have eased. We should not point to the CHO changing their advice as a sign of weakness, but of the strength of our systems changing the outcomes based on new evidence. The honesty and transparency is why they "backtrack". They've acted on the strength of the evidence put before them at the time. Remember - a recent Prime Minister of Australia was once quoted saying that you can only hold him to his words when they are prepared statements, and anything said 'off the cuff' when asked a question in a press conference shouldn't be treated as 'gospel truth'. The only weakness is continuing to blindly argue something despite all evidence pointing otherwise. Force and Coercion Polio. Smallpox. Things of this nature. People saw it as a duty to their community to get vaccinated. Nobody needed to be coerced or forced to do anything because the advice came from the experts and people listened to them and trusted them. <its post edit me here saying I really got carried away on this one. suffice to say the paragraphs of arguments would have fallen on deaf ears> Put simply - those who willingly support their community should be allowed to benefit from it. Those who do not wish to support their community by doing their part, should not be allowed to participate beyond their human right entitlement. access to food, clothing and shelter is paramount. Access to medical care is permitted, but probably unnecessary. However - employment is not a right, and that is why those folks are entitled to claim welfare if they cannot work. Average testing and data collection periods The covid vaccine has had some development ongoing for a decade. This is not the first coronavirus. Researchers learned a lot from SARS and from MERS. Covid-19 was far more highly transmissible but less deadly than some other coronaviruses, but the research was ongoing. The next coronavirus was expected, although perhaps not as soon. Combine that with the fact that world governments (and the WHO) labelled this a pandemic, and literally THREW money at the researchers to continue development. The covid-19 vaccine vector was developed in about 12 months off the back of years of coronavirus vaccine research. But so is the annual flu vaccine. Every year new flu strains show up and the jab they offer next winter is based off of the strains seen in the northern hemisphere right now. That's 6 months development of a new vaccine for a strain of Influenza - which will be worthless in another 12-24 months when the new strains come along. These days the fluvax is a quadrivalent vaccine based on the most prevalent FOUR strains. All of them, a different vaccine. Almost all of them, observed in the wild for the first time in the prior 2 years or so. And again (and i've said this before) they didn't start from scratch for Covid-19. They already have vaccines in testing and development for other coronavirus variants. modifying it based on years of research to fit a new strain isn't anything new in immunology. "It was rushed and hasn't been properly tested" is a bullshit argument.

@pin142 is the winner! Dec 15th is the day, marking the 40th Anniversary of the park. Well played! https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/business/gold-coast-business/gold-coasts-dreamworld-to-launch-its-32m-steel-taipan-coaster-on-for-40th-birthday-on-december-15/news-story/f08ce5246f1e9727b81eeb356ce17e85

I mean I might disagree with @Brad2912 about covid, but I don't get the obsession people have in wanting to keep the conversation going either

Just realised I don’t want to spend my time on this forum arguing. No one is going to change another persons mind (nor is it or was it my intention to). i’m happy to make a comment here and there regarding specifics of mandates on the parks and impact etc - but just don’t have the appetite of a back and forth on the covid issue en masse.

Couldn’t agree more. They have done a fantastic job, explored new ways of marketing (with the drone footage, etc). Made it exciting and stated the key facts needed to get across. This definitely is a new standard and is what the park needed to do to bring the park back into the positive spotlight. It’s a shame they couldn’t have done this with SkyVoyager, but if the lengthily delays, it would’ve been a hard one. In comparison to other marketing parks have done, I always loved the Rivals announcement video and the commercial, but other than that, there wasn’t much else. Everywhere I go, I am seeing some form of marketing around the GC and they are smashing it online too.

Website just updated too

It really does.

I'm amazed at how many tabs you have open on your browser window..

I also put down the 15th Looking forward to riding, sadly I'll be at work that day

Wet'n'Wild have just added a bunch of photos and videos to their FB and Insta channels of people testing the new slides (with the exception of Kaboom)

I don't know for sure, but I would suspect that the SW Resort Convention Centre is a good little money spinner for them. Yes you've got the venue hire and events income, but you've also got hotel stays and extra theme park ticket sales. Including one in Oxenford seems like a no brainer.

is that a hint though or is it just emphasis because some view the trains as being the only thing at the park that matters?

Will be an advance opportunity for passholders

Its always a bit hard to argue with common sense..........

Honestly seemed the most logical otherwise I'd have gone with the Thursday/Friday to lead into the holidays.

Thicc dudes will be in demand!!

the spin just depends on weight, it’s better to go on with someone the opposite weight / size as you as the spin will be more intense

Isn't a Convention Centre essentially a fitted out Sound Stage anyway?

Nothing says theme park like a new convention centre.

Oh dear, The Gold Coaster’s lift hill is in a bush. There gonna be a ton of lawsuits from guests being stabbed by the branches.

Bottom image (after having 4 - 6 schools flood the Gotham outlet and cause a fuss) Dreamworld's website has been given a refresh. Got insane VRTP vibes from it - only this time I prefer the Dreamworld website more. (Check out https://www.dreamworld.com.au/rides-attractions/dreamworld/thrill-rides/steel-taipan/) I'm amazed at the fact that the entire site (incl. every single page) got overhauled. Hell. Even the maintenance page looks nice.

What a stupid watermark.

I take exception to this one. In any country, a certain number of deaths is expected from all causes (accident, illness, old age, homicide, suicide) and this remains reasonably stable from year to year (same as the birth rate remains reasonably stable from year to year) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm But in places where the pandemic was bad, way more people were dying than usual, so clearly a new dangerous illness was the new kid on the block picking people off. A handful of deaths possibly being misatribued is really irrevant if hundreds of thousands of people of extra people are dying overall.

At the end of the day, everyone who is hesitant should speak to a trusted GP about vaccination. With that aside, here's my thoughts. They've been the most closely scrutinised vaccines in human history. Doctor Norman Swan (who's great on CoronaCast) has a great article about it. Billions of doses have been administered now - if there was an issue, we definitely would've seen it by now. We were able to rapidly develop vaccines for a multitude of reasons. Our own TGA (which is one of the strictest in the world) has a knowledge-base about this. We're so lucky to live on an island country. Other countries have not fared as well and countries like Germany with as much resources as us are still struggling. We're really lucky that we feel like COVID-19 won't impact us in Australia because our states, by in large, have done the right thing in using a system of resources to minimise spread and impact until vaccines arrived. Without it, we'd have a lot more deaths (see above) and worse, a lot more people with long-covid, which sounds awful. Every side-effect, every death post vaccination, every reported sniffle is logged and checked. That data is also widely available - nothing is being hidden. This data has been misreported by politicians and fringe circles en masse, circumnavigating our spam and privacy acts in the process. More often than not, opposing, conservative opinions cherry-pick data or publish data in journals that aren't well known and aren't subject to peer review. Our federal government wasn't bothered to build quarantine facilities that it was supposed to by law, it refused to roll-out a national strategy for COVID-19 until it was forced to and absolutely bungled/lied about getting vaccines when we needed it. During that time, they spent millions on an app that didn't use global standards and was essentially a massive failure. And when our states stepped in and did all the leg work, not only did Scott Morrison take credit for it, but when conservative voices rioted and suggested violence against our states, he side-stepped condemning what is absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, abhorrent behaviour. Our federal government couldn't pour water out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel, let alone coerce and force people into getting vaccinated.

Why?

For sure - if science, evidence and critical thinking trumped belief, the Church of Scientology would be f*cked. Tim Minchin said that, and I reckon that holds up just as well as when he first coined it over a decade ago. COVID-19 isn't an exercise in beliefs, it's an exercise in science and evidence. All pandemics are, and we didn't beat any of them by believing they weren't real, so why should this one be any different? I'll leave with you another one of his quotes that I think is pertinent given the context of the debate.

Wait did I just do a mic drop a week ago? @Brad2912didn't have anything to say on the above.

Given any medical professional is suspended or sacked and lose their creditations if they suggest anything other than “get jabbed” you’re unlikely to hear anything but a one sided conversation. I’d consider the significant number of heart related reactions, especially in young men, to be an issue. 870 in the first week of November alone. I agree That’s not the experience I have heard or seen first hand. Any reaction is at first attempt palmed off as “coincidental”. Data has been misreported and used since day 1. It’s a documented fact that initially there was an overstatement of deaths attributed to covid. If you die with covid, you are ascertained to have died because of covid. Without doubt, our federal govt royally f**ked up, as did states. We had CHO’s say that getting AZ jab if you were young was more dangerous than getting covid. Then a week later they backtracked. If you don’t think that doesn’t play on people’s minds about the honesty and transparency we are receiving then I don’t know what will. Mandating that people have to get a jab to keep their job, career, livelihood is the definition of force. Providing “rewards” for people to get vaccinated is the definition of coercion. I’m not sure - i am not an anti-vaxxer. The average testing and data collection phase for vaccines prior to a full scale approval and rollout is near to 16 years. there is decades of data on the potential short/medium/long term reactions to childhood vaxs. Parents can make the decision for their children knowing what those are, they can’t in this instance as we have no medium/long term data whatsoever and even the short term data is murky in how it’s being reported