Several allegations of serious safety issues at the Dreamworld theme park have emerged as investigators probe a ride malfunction that killed four adults, including two mothers who died in front of their young children.
A raft carrying six people crashed into another raft as it reached the top of a wooden conveyor belt on the Thunder River Rapids ride on Tuesday afternoon, causing it to flip over backwards and crush or drown its occupants.
Two children miraculously survived in what police described as "the providence of God".
Dreamworld announced they will reopen on Friday, three days after the tragedy, to hold a memorial day for the four people that died on the park's well-known ride.
On Wednesday, Queensland specialist engineers and scientific police turned their investigation to all aspects of the 30-year-old water ride, including machine components, maintenance logs, ride engineering and the theme park's policies and procedures.
Lawyers say they are bracing for several lawsuits that may cripple the park's existence and exacerbate the massive hit looming for the Gold Coast's international tourism industry, which is heavily reliant on its theme parks.
Fairfax Media has uncovered several claims of serious safety mishaps, including revelations that the Thunder River Rapids ride had malfunctioned twice in three days, leaving riders stranded for up to half an hour and raising questions over whether the amusement park ride, which opened in 1986, had passed its use-by date.
Gold Coast nurse Teresa, who asked for her surname to be withheld, suffered bruises and rope burn on her arm when she was forced to catch her son mid-air at the end of the ride on March 19.
"There is a point in the ride ... just before you go up the conveyor belt where you hit a rougher part of the water and you get a jolt," she said. "Sometimes that jolt makes you bounce off your seat. On this day we hit the water so hard that it forced my son up from his seat and his seat belt became undone. My friend and I caught him mid-air and put him back in his seat."
She sent a complaint to Dreamworld the next day but never heard back.
A Dreamworld spokeswoman didn't respond to her claims but said the ride passed its annual mechanical and structural safety inspection on September 29 and had been constantly upgraded since 1986.
As per regulations, this safety audit was conducted by a specialist external engineering firm," she said.
Hundreds of patrons took to social media to defend their experience on the ride however they were peppered with alarming stories of near-misses from Tuesday.
"We were on the ride about an hour before the accident and we were also on the ride last week," said Joelle Verfurth. "The ride today was faster than last week and the water levels higher."
Natalie O'Brien said: "It's weird, when we hit the conveyer belt to go up at the end of the ride today, there was a louder than normal bang, my son said that was unusual, but didn't think much of it at the time".
It's understood the ride's conveyor belt broke on Sunday, leaving riders stuck for about 15 minutes. The ride broke down again on Tuesday morning and had to be drained and restarted.
The Australian Workers' Union Queensland secretary Ben Swan said he raised concerns over safety issues 18 months ago but Dreamworld chose to ignore them.
The complaints related to operational and mechanical faults on other rides but Tuesday's incident would "categorically ... not come as a surprise" to management, he said.
On Wednesday, Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson was among those who laid flowers on the entrance wall.
Tributes grew up to a 100 metres long for Canberra mother Kate Goodchild, her Canberra-based brother Luke Dorsett, Mr Dorsett's partner Roozi Araghi and an unrelated holidayer, New Zealand-born Sydney mother Cindy Low.
Ms Low, who was holidaying with family and friends, made the tragic decision to take the ride without her husband Mathew and six-year-old daughter Isla who said they were now suffering "intense grief".
Her 10-year-old son Kieran was in the raft along with Ms Goodchild's 13-year-old daughter who were both deeply traumatised but uninjured.
The mother of Ms Goodchild and Mr Dorsett also despaired at losing her two children, both Department of Human Services employees.
"I have three children and have lost two of them today – my whole family has been wiped out," Kim Dorsett told News Corp.
Federal senator Sam Dastyari was one of many to pay tribute to Mr Araghi, an Australian Bureau of Statistics worker and pop music lover whose family helped the Dastyaris to migrate to Sydney.
"I'm devastated that such a caring, loving, sweet and sensitive friend has been lost. I'm angry that this could happen at a venue like Dreamworld," he said.
I was lucky enough to have been raised with Roozi Araghi. He was a caring, gentle and sweet soul. Australia worse for the loss. pic.twitter.com/GxrnKlEHio— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) October 26, 2016
Police vowed to hold any potential negligence to account, saying prosecutions were not out of the question.
"We owe it to the deceased and their families, we owe it to the community of Queensland to get to the bottom of what caused this, to hold accountable any person that needs to be held accountable for this occurring... but most particularly ensuring that this can never happen again," Assistant Commissioner Brian Codd said.
