Shock as Dreamworld loses man behind Tiger Island attraction

[PoolGuy]

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

[Brad2912]

Well he couldn’t have been made redundant unless his position was no longer going to be in place. You can’t be made redundant and they just bump up the guy below you into your role. 

I'm not sure what his official position was, but can only assume it wasn’t “senior supervisor” given that’s what his replacements position is labelled as.

sad that he is gone however, he is an institution there. 

[joz]

If it's true that they got rid of him then they have well and truly lost the plot out there.

 

I said a few years ago that current DW management doesn't understand animals. It is with sadness that I stand by that assessment.

[Ashley]

Curious, with them saying that they're more focused on rides than animals.

Do you think they might eventfully get rid of their animal exhibits?

[Rivals]

Just now, Ashley said:

Curious, with them saying that they're more focused on rides than animals.

Do you think they might eventfully get rid of their animal exhibits?

It sounds like it means they won’t be adding more animal enclosures for the foreseeable future. 

Also, if current management don’t understand animals, they wouldn’t let go someone that does and has nearly 3 decades of experience. Stuff with employees happens all the time behind close doors at the parks that they don’t want the public to know. I’d say it’s likely something happened with him that they weren’t happy with so they decided to let him go. Not everything is “management in shambles”

[joz]

1 minute ago, Rivals said:

Also, if current management don’t understand animals, they wouldn’t let go someone that does and has nearly 3 decades of experience.

Nah that's kind of it though. If you don't understand animals, then you also by extension don't understand the value of that experience you lose when you lose a Pat or an Al. If Pat being let go was the only thing to have happened, maybe you'd have a point, but this is not an isolated thing. There are lots of signs they don't get it. This is another sign, and it's been going on for a long time.

 

I always stress this in all these kinds of posts that I don't think animal welfare is at issue (least I hope not), but you really do need someone like a Pat or an Al with the power to do what they need to do without interference. I just don't see that kind of thing here.

 

Management don't understand animals, and perhaps even more crucially to why they're making the decisions they're making, they don't understand the value animals bring to the park, even without international guests. Don't forget folks, when WWF opened, attendance at MW was stagnant. DW smashed them that year because DW had Tiger Cubs. $20million on the biggest ride in the country at the time lost badly to some kittens. It's a large part of why SW got Polar Bears, and anyone who was around then knows how big of a deal they were! I'm convinced that SW's animal attractions are the only thing keeping the place alive at this point.

[rappa]

1 hour ago, Rivals said:

Not everything is “management in shambles”

Not understanding (or interested in) animals doesn’t automatically equate to shambles…

But it’s no industry secret that the current CEO has no interest in animal based attractions, never really has. So this departure doesn’t really surprise me. I’d say the days of Tiger Island are numbered and wouldn’t be surprised if this time next year Dreamworld’s tigers are sharing a home with Bindi and Bob. 

[Brad2912]

Just now, rappa said:

I’d say the days of Tiger Island are numbered and wouldn’t be surprised if this time next year Dreamworld’s tigers are sharing a home with Bindi and Bob. 

That would be incredibly disappointing, beyond words imo. I don’t even think the offset of a world class, record breaker ride in its footprint would be accepted or quell the general fury that would be felt by long term park goers and the GP. 

[rappa]

I completely agree and I hope my prediction doesn’t come true. 

[Rivals]

If they didn’t have an interest in keeping animals in the park i don’t think they’d keep bringing new animals in during seasonal events and promoting the animal aspect well like they currently are. 

Animals may not be the new management’s favourite thing, but i don’t think they’d be dumb enough to get rid of them as it is one of their advantages over the other parks. I mean it would have to be clear to them that the animals are a large draw for international tourists to visit the park instead of the other parks like MovieWorld.

[Brad2912]

15 minutes ago, Rivals said:

If they didn’t have an interest in keeping animals in the park i don’t think they’d keep bringing new animals in during seasonal events

Please tell me you’re not talking about the rent-a-farm that they have for Spring Fair that’s already been at my sons school 4 times this year alone… that doesn’t indicate an interest in animals and is as effort-laden as booking a food truck 

18 minutes ago, Rivals said:

the animals are a large draw for international tourists to visit the park instead of the other parks like MovieWorld.

Those Asian bus tours have not returned, as that Asian tourism sector hasn’t recovered or rebounded from covid. It’s still a while off doing so too.

the majority of tourists visiting DW are interstate, who have better presented animal sanctuaries/parks where they are coming from than what DW offers (aside from TI)

[Rivals]

5 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

Please tell me you’re not talking about the rent-a-farm that they have for Spring Fair that’s already been at my sons school 4 times this year alone… that doesn’t indicate an interest in animals and is as effort-laden as booking a food truck 

It more shows that the park knows animals are apart of their draw card, if they didn’t know that they wouldn’t bother🤷‍♀️

6 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

Those Asian bus tours have not returned, as that Asian tourism sector hasn’t recovered or rebounded from covid. It’s still a while off doing so too.

We’re still at the end of a pandemic, it won’t be like this forever and once those tourists start coming back (icy guess is around  mid 2023 - early 2024) it will be a competitive advantage compared to the other parks when tourists are choosing where to visit . Until then focusing on improving areas of the park, adding new rides and refurbishing old ones is a smart move.

[joz]

51 minutes ago, Rivals said:

I mean it would have to be clear to them that the animals are a large draw for international tourists to visit the park instead of the other parks like MovieWorld.

I don't think you understand how international tourism/tour groups work. It's all deals and agreements. The operators take a cut and put places against each other. It's not like tour operators are weighing things up like 'Where do I think the best local places are?'

 

I also think you under estimate how many local families with small kids exist for whom going to see the animals is a big attraction. Your statement above actually works quite well when considering local families.

[Rivals]

4 minutes ago, joz said:

I don't think you understand how international tourism/tour groups work. It's all deals and agreements. The operators take a cut and put places against each other. It's not like tour operators are weighing things up like 'Where do I think the best local places are?'

 

I also think you under estimate how many local families with small kids exist for whom going to see the animals is a big attraction. Your statement above actually works quite well when considering local families.

thank you for explaining the top part for me i honestly had no idea that’s what was meant by the “Asian Tour Busses.”

I do agree about the local families too, a lot of the time both animal areas are just filled with families and little kids just completely forgot to add that in too

[joz]

7 minutes ago, Rivals said:

thank you for explaining the top part for me

I apologise for doing so with a slightly condescending tone 🙂

[themagician]

This is incredibly sad news. I was lucky enough to meet Patrick on several occasions and his passion for tigers and Tiger Island was inspiring. From my perspective this is a major loss for DW, but the remaining tiger island team is very much capable after all the years of training from the man who started it all. This definitely won’t be the end of Tiger Island as it’s still a major part of DW and we won’t be seeing the animals leave the park either. The park management recognises how popular and important that area of the park and while they may see rides as more important and a draw factor for guests to the park, animals are still an essential part of DW that won’t be leaving. 

[Chalky]

and the Dreamworld share price continues to crumble under current management. 

[Archer]

Dreamworld has a lengthy track record of making department managers / supervisors redundant or positions untenable.

Lets have a look at only just a small handful of examples since 2017.

 

—-Wildlife - 2019?
Apparently didn’t agree on the direction that Ardent was going (Unsustainable)

 

—F&B Department Managers  x 2  - 2017 & 2020?     ?/ unsustainable 

 

—-Guest Services Manager - 2019 Redundant 

 

—-Uniform Dept Head Supervisor- 2019  Redundant 

 

—-Entertainment Supervisor - 2019  Redundant 

 

—-Cleaning & Grounds Manager - 2018  Unsustainable 

 

—-Safety Department Managers x 2 -  2018 & 2019    Unsustainable / Redundant 

 

—-Engineering - 2019?  - Where are you Deeves?🤣 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Archer

[deano554]

what does a —-Uniform Dept Head Supervisor- do??

[Ashley]

2 hours ago, deano554 said:

what does a —-Uniform Dept Head Supervisor- do??

They do various things, to name a few:

1. Supervisor staff who are purchasing, or collecting their uniforms.

2. Maintains the uniforms 

3. Ensures all staff are professionally dressed, and implement rules to ensure they remain, dressed professionally.

Their job is to oversee all that, plus more.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Ashley

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Yep. Wonderland's wardrobe team were some of the hardest working bunch in the park!

[Archer]

The wardrobe staff start at 3am washing and ironing all uniforms and the last shift finishes I think around 9pm.