Dreamworld won't reopen until after funerals4:34
Staff at Dreamworld hold a private memorial service for the four people killed in a ride accident.
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DREAMWORLD chief executive Craig Davidson says he believes the theme park will survive, as it deals with the fallout of the horror river ride carnage that claimed four lives.
On the day that the park had planned to reopen to the public, Dreamworld executives instead held a private and emotional vigil with staff as police and forensic investigators continued to sift through the Thunder River Rapids for clues.
The park now will not reopen until after the funerals of the victims.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Courier-Mail, Mr Davidson, at times fighting back tears, spoke of the terrible impact the tragedy has had on families across Australia, on Dreamworld staff and how he hopes to never again watch the horrifying CCTV footage of the moment Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozi Araghi and Cindy Low were killed on one of the tamest rides in the park.
He said the first priority remained the care of the victims’ families, but believed the park would live on.
“The public, particularly the local public, have still got a deep love of this park,” he said.
“We’ve had something devastating and unprecedented happen, but I think the park will still go on and the park will have a future.
“There’s a lot of people that work here that need it to have a future.”
Mr Davidson was sitting in his office shortly before 2.30pm on Tuesday when the operations manager told him there had been an accident at the Thunder River Rapids ride.
“I was devastated – you don’t reconcile with that,” he said.
Dreamworld victims' father pays tribute4:01
A father who lost his two children in the fatal Dreamworld accident wants to know what went wrong.
“Talking about it even now is hard. We’re heartbroken.
“We can only imagine what the families are going through.
“Everyone is focused on those families and those kids. We have now contacted the key family members and we have engaged assistance from the Mayor’s office because there are some family members who don’t want to engage with us directly, and we get that,” he said.
“We have made offers of support to each of the families’ any immediate needs. Some of them are still grieving and we are very conscious of that.”
He said he hoped to never again watch footage of the tragedy “unless it would help the investigation”.
Dreamworld has come in for heavy criticism for the handling of the tragedy, with the company lurching from one PR disaster to the next, but Mr Davidson said he was confident they were now on the right path.
Deborah Thomas speaks out on Ardent Leisure's handling of Dreamworld tragedy0:23
Deborah Thomas speaks out on Ardent Leisure's handling of Dreamworld tragedy: 'We thought we were doing the right thing."
“It’s unprecedented and it takes time to get the communication process right. It was a pretty frantic few days (but) we have made the right decisions about the park’s operations since then.
‘‘We’ve made the right decision not to reopen the park until the funerals have been held. I think (initially) it was more about doing something of a memorial day to let the community mourn as well so it would be a combined event.
“We have made the right call to postpone that and we will do it once the park reopens and we will deal with that at the time.”
For now, Mr Davidson said the focus remained on the grieving families, but eventually it would shift to winning back a public which has lost faith in one of the best known tourist attractions in Australia.
“We’re going to continue to focus on the families, we’re going to continue to focus on our people. A lot of people are hurting.
Dreamworld staff hold private memorial3:06
Staff at Dreamworld hold aprivate memorial service for the four people killed in a ride accident.
“We’re going to give police every co-operation they need.
‘‘Beyond that, we will turn our heads to what it needs to get the community’s trust back and also to get the trust back in to our teams.
“I’m confident we can win back that trust. I have to be confident.
‘‘This is tragic but we have to also look at what comes tomorrow and what comes the day after.”