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Safe to do say Dreamworld & Pico Play won’t be collaborating on anything in the future… Court rules against Dreamworld in Gold Coast theme park payment battle Dreamworld has lost a Supreme Court battle after refusing to pay $555,000 to the design company behind its new $35m Rivertown precinct. Dreamworld has lost a Supreme Court battle in which it was accused of trying to short-change a leading theme park attractions company involved in a new multimillion-dollar precinct at the Gold Coast fun park. The stoush over the $35m Rivertown project, which opened late last year, erupted between Dreamworld owners Coast Entertainment and attraction design company Pico Play Pty Ltd, which has worked on projects worldwide including Bluey’s World in Brisbane and Movie World’s Wizard of Oz precinct. Pico Play launched legal action earlier this year after Coast Entertainment declined to pay a $555,000-plus on a $4.1m contract for the Jungle Rush and Murrissipi Motors (vintage car) themed areas of Rivertown. The payment claim went to a building industry adjudicator who rejected the application on the basis that he lacked jurisdiction, after determining that the claim did not have a valid reference date and that Pico Play had undertaken to perform unlicensed building work. The company took both Coast Entertainment and adjudicator Christopher Taylor to court alleging that the claim was valid and that Mr Taylor had erred in relation to the unlicensed work finding. Court documents reveal Coast Entertainment rejected the payment claim after themed components for the project were either missing, delivered late or defective. The company denied performing unlicensed building work, as its role was limited to designing, fabricating and delivering certain themed components to the site. Pico project manager Marnus Hendrikse, in an affidavit, said the company had experienced various delays during the project which were not within its control, including design delays and a typhoon which disrupted the transport of goods from its factory in Vietnam. Mr Hendrikse said the contract did not require Pico to seek an extension of time but he had worked collaboratively with the theme park operator to provide updates. He said Pico Play had accepted some payment deductions by Coast Entertainment but others were in dispute. Lawyers for Pico Play contended that Mr Taylor had made a “jurisdictional error” in rejecting the company’s adjudication application because the claim did have a valid reference date and no unlicensed building work was carried out. The lawyers said Pico Play had delivered goods to the Rivertown site in December last year, establishing the reference date. The company denied performing unlicensed building work, as its role was limited to designing, fabricating and delivering certain themed components to the site. Coast Entertainment’s lawyers argued that Mr Taylor was correct in his ruling, saying Pico Play tried to re-characterise its final claim as a progress claim “when faced with evidence of later deliveries and missing items”. They said Pico Play did not hold an open builders licence between October 20023 and July 2024 and its restricted structural landscaping licence did not cover the full scope of works under the contract. The Coast Entertainment lawyers said Mr Taylor was therefore correct in finding that Pico Play had undertaken to carry out building work, in breach of the construction act. They said Pico Play’s contractual obligations went “beyond mere off-site” fabrication and it had wrongly sought to characterise its work as “ornamental or ancillary”. In a judgment handed down last month, Justice Declan Kelly found in Pico Play’s favour and declared Mr Taylor’s adjudication decision to be void. The dispute marked a souring of relations between Pico Play and Dreamworld, which have collaborated on multiple projects over the years. After visiting Pico Play’s Vietnamese facility early last year, Dreamworld CEO Greg Yong said the company had a “super talented” team and he felt “100 per cent confident” in their handling of the Rivertown project. https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/queensland/court-rules-against-dreamworld-in-gold-coast-theme-park-payment-battle/news-story/f31577a5d73e483815295a4e25be9119?fbclid=IwZnRzaANlGOFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHpkhxSyrpUeqLKFfHVpw56c-8fGyVPRYblH8GdoVsXEHcS8WZk1agilY8UKN_aem_1nl8qN6VJS7I0nmognlixQ