PoolGuy

@Gold Coast Bulletin

Doesn't make sense why they left that last small section of the tower station and tube.

Surfriders "Surfboard" positioned out back of the park.

Staff previews for Leviathan start today!

DC Rivals is under going testing. Hopefully soon she will be back open.

Dreamworld has lost its “tiger king”, with the shock departure of the man who set up the Gold Coast theme park’s iconic Tiger Island attraction more than a quarter of a century ago. Patrick Martin-Vegue left the park earlier this month after being made redundant following 27 years in the job. The world-renowned tiger expert was poached from the US in 1995 to set up Dreamworld’s Tiger Island attraction, which quickly became one of Queensland’s top tourism drawcards. His sudden departure has rocked current and former staff amid concerns the theme park is focusing more on its rides than its animal attractions after being slammed by the pandemic and the 2016 Thunder River Rapids ride tragedy in which four tourists died. Dreamworld was recently embroiled in controversy when it was revealed the park’s owners, Ardent Leisure, had “repurposed” almost $3 million in taxpayer funds earmarked for a major koala research facility for its new $32 million Steel Taipan rollercoaster. “There’s been concern for a while at the direction of the park,” a Dreamworld insider said. “They’re so focused on the rides that they’ve forgotten about the animals. They don’t even have an in-house vet.” The park has lost several experienced animal staff in recent years, including respected former life sciences manager Al Mucci and two tiger handlers. It’s understood the park’s next most senior handler, Simon Murray, only recently returned to work after being injured in an incident on Tiger Island. Dreamworld is believed to have recently hired three rookie tiger handlers and insiders say there are concerns about how Tiger Island will be managed with the loss of Mr Martin-Vegue. Arden Leisure chairman Gary Weiss told The Courier-Mail last month that Dreamworld could have shut permanently or been sold off at a “knockdown price” as the pandemic wreaked havoc on the company’s bottom line. “They were very dark days for us,” Dr Weiss said, adding that only a $67 million lifeline from the Palaszczuk Government and federal JobKeeper payments had saved the park. Mr Martin-Vegue was the face of Tiger Island, one of only two interactive tiger exhibits in the world when it opened. Over the years, he oversaw the arrival of a series of new Bengal and Sumatran tiger cubs born in captivity at Dreamworld as well as adult tigers brought from other zoos in Australia and overseas as part of worldwide conservation and breeding programs. A Dreamworld spokeswoman confirmed Mr Martin-Vegue was “no longer with the business and we wish him the best with his future endeavours”. “Tiger Island continues to operate as normal and long-standing Tiger Island supervisor Simon (Murray) has been promoted to a senior supervisor role,” she said. Originally published as Shock as Dreamworld loses man behind Tiger Island attraction

There was a malfunction with the elevator

Hyper coaster is stuck mid course. Train was empty but due to the wind it did not make it through the loop.

How Michael Clancy fought back after nightmare of Dreamworld tragedy “Murderers!” With a scream, two men jumped the counter of the guest services desk at Dreamworld, spraying their venom at the innocent staff. “It’s your fault!” they yelled, as security guards wrestled them down before dragging them away. It was 2016, just weeks after the October 25 tragedy that claimed four lives, and guest services supervisor Michael Clancy was under attack and struggling to cope. He’d witnessed the horrific aftermath, his dreams were tortured by the terrible scenes he’d seen, but as he struggled to help the theme park get back to business, he found himself under constant harassment. Park patrons would spit at him, staff were emailed death threats and even his own children were bullied at school – by parents – for what had occurred in one of the darkest chapters of Gold Coast history. Michael’s corporate career at Dreamworld, of which he was so proud, had turned into a living nightmare. Three months after the tragedy, he quit. It was all he could do as he fought for his life. Drowning under the weight of PTSD, depression and anxiety, he tried every therapy he could imagine, but still found himself wishing that, if only he could sleep, he would not wake up. “It was the most awful time,” Michael says. “All of us who worked at the park at that time have suffered, even if they weren’t there on the day. “There’s not one of us still left. I get anxious even now if I have to drive down the M1. I know we’ll never forget those who lost their lives that day, nor should we, but I think we have forgotten just how many people were deeply impacted and still suffer. “My own children were targeted. I received a call one day from the before-school hours carer who said another parent had gone up to my son and told him ‘your Dad’s killed people’. “My daughter was defending me but this parent said ‘if your Dad works for a company that murdered people, then he’s a murderer’. Thank goodness the school suspended that parent, but that’s just one example of what we went through. “My daughter didn’t even want to tell me because she knew how much I was struggling, she wanted to protect me at her own expense. I felt like a failure as a father. “I just couldn’t understand what was happening to me. I saw three heart specialists, and was out of pocket more than $3000, because I just couldn’t believe that the physical sensations I was feeling were from anxiety. I thought I must have cardiac issues. “Yet nothing was helping. I tried every form of therapy but I was just sinking further down. “Then one day I said to my wife, ‘I think I’m going to get a bird’.” And that was the day Michael discovered his wings. Through caring for his Eclectus parrot Archie, Michael found his purpose again. And he found a friend. Simply caring for the bird was enough to get Michael out of bed, and chatting with Archie got him out of his head. As he learned to better manage his own PTSD symptoms and triggers, Michael realised that birds would be the perfect companion pet for many others facing mental health challenges. Now, with the help of his feathered friends, Michael has turned tragedy into what will soon be a registered charity – Parrots for Purpose – matching more than 500 hand-raised birds with humans in need of support companions. “I’m not so deluded as to think I can change the world, but what we can do at Parrots for Purpose is to make someone’s world happier. And we’re doing that one bird at a time. “Not only did Archie help me find purpose in my day, but now my whole life has purpose. My family and I all do this together and it gives me such joy to help others. “This was born from a tragedy but I am so grateful that where a lot of people turned to alcohol and drugs, I turned right at those crossroads and chose this path instead. “The stories that I hear back from the people we have helped make up for what I went through. It’s restored my faith in humanity. “Doing this work is effortless, I haven’t had to stress or worry about what’s going to happen next, it’s all unfolded naturally … not to get too spiritual or supernatural but it feels like it’s charmed. “I’ve also had so much support. I could never have done this without the support of the NDIS and Carers Queensland, starting something like this while you’re still dealing with PTSD is an extra challenge. But it just reminds me of how much others need this help. “I work with a lot of returned soldiers, and recently I’ve been helping a number of refugee families. The children have seen so much trauma so matching them with a native budgerigar gives them someone to love with no memories attached. This is a creature they’ve never seen before. “Sometimes I feel like an ambulance chaser – wherever there is a disaster or trauma, there I am. I’ve given away 19 birds to victims of the floods who lost pets. “I get so many referrals from GPs and health services, it’s amazing to be recognised for this service. “The beauty of a bird is that it’s so easy to care for – but it still requires attention. You don’t have to take it for walks if you need to stay indoors, there are no smells, and not many dogs or cats can sit on your shoulder and talk to you. These birds have so much affection and personality, they’ll curl up under your chin to snuggle. It’s true animal magic.” While Parrots for Purpose continues to spread its wings, Michael says he’s ready to take the next step and become a registered charity so he can help more people. He says while he would happily sell a kidney to keep funding the service, it would be nice not to. “It would be amazing to one day be able to draw a wage from this, however small, but my main priority is just to make sure that this can continue for as long as people need it – not until I run out of internal organs,” he laughs. “Having seen death so close and understanding the truth of mortality and how things can change so quickly, I know that when it comes to money you can’t take it with you. I’m not interested in being rich – although I do have to feed my family. “Doing this, I sleep well now. “I know I’m making an impact, however small, in this world.” And that’s what will live on.

Private equity takes a look at Ardent Leisure Theme parks like Dreamworld are set to do a roaring trade during the school holidays, with the soaring cost of international travel prompting Australians to travel domestically. A global private equity fund is understood to be running the ruler over Dreamworld owner Ardent Leisure. It comes just weeks ahead of the finalisation of Ardent’s sale of its Texas-based restaurant and entertainment business Main Event to Dave & Busters for $1.1bn. The sale of that business is due at the end of July, paving the way for a suitor to approach Ardent for the remaining Australian arm, with one drawcard being its attractive Gold Coast land bank. An Ardent Leisure source said the company had not received any approaches from private equity firms. Ardent Leisure’s market value is currently $626m with shares recovering from $1 almost a year ago when the country was in lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. Now shares are at $1.32 with the Gold Coast-based Dreamworld reopen for business. Main Event operates 5150 centres in 17 states across the US, including bowling alleys, arcade games, laser tag and virtual reality arenas. After that business is sold, Ardent Leisure, which has about $150m of cash on its balance sheet, is likely to have a market value of $192m, suggesting that its theme parks are worth only $40m, say analysts. Ardent Leisure describes itself as one of Australia’s most successful leisure and entertainment groups, operating Dreamworld, WhiteWater World and SkyPoint theme parks. Blackstone and EQT would be logical buyers given the synergies they could extract from a deal at a time such funds are looking at companies in the $1bn to $3bn price range. Blackstone currently owns part of the global theme park giant Merlin Entertainments, which has Legoland parks, while EQT Partners and Elliott Management own Madrid-based theme park owner Parques Reunidos. Apollo Global Management has previously bid for theme park owners, while US-based KSL Capital Partners looked at Ardent before. Melbourne-based BGH Capital also cannot be discounted as a bidder, given that it purchased rival Village Roadshow, which owns the Gold Coast theme park Sea World. Gaining Australian Competition & Consumer Commission clearance would be a challenge, but a deal would not be impossible. Ardent Leisure sank $86.9m into the red for the six months to December as border restrictions and snap lockdowns hit theme parks. In May, it announced that it was developing the Dreamworld Resort in agreement with accommodation developer Evolution, planning a four-star, 250-room hotel and a five-star tourist park with 100 powered sites. Ardent had earlier said that the proceeds from sale of Main Event – considered the jewel in the crown of the Ardent Leisure business – would be used to settle its outstanding debt and support ongoing growth and development of its domestic theme park business. The company also intended to distribute about $430m to its shareholders. Any bidder will need to get past savvy investors on the register, including Queensland billionaire Kevin Seymour, who owns a 5.5 per cent interest, and chairman Gary Weiss. The pair are directors at Ariadne, which raided Ardent’s register in 2017 with a view that the business was undervalued. Theme parks like Dreamworld are set to do a roaring trade during the school holidays, with the soaring cost of international travel prompting Australians to travel domestically. At an industry conference in Sydney this month, a panel of private equity operatives said they were focused on targets where higher costs could be passed through to the customer.