Australia's Dreamworld theme park to reopen after fatal accident

Dreamworld, the popular theme park in Australia's Gold Coast in Queensland, is set to reopen on Dec. 10, six weeks after four people died on a ride.

The park was closed after two women and two men, between the ages of 32 and 42, were killed when its Thunder River Rapids ride malfunctioned on Oct. 25.

Dreamworld CEO Craig Davidson said in a media release on Wednesday that Dreamworld and neighboring theme park WhiteWater World would reopen following an "unprecedented multi-level safety review."

"Every ride and slide open on 10th December will have passed this rigorously conducted, multi-level safety review," he said.

The review encompasses "Workplace Health and Safety Queensland's audit, Dreamworld's internal engineering review, Pitt & Sherry's independent review and the external peer-review by UK based theme park safety specialists, LTC."

Inspections from a Workplace Health and Safety Queensland audit earlier in November resulted in 10 improvement and prohibition notices issued for the theme parks, according to parent company Ardent Leisure.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has "lifted all prohibition and improvement notices previously issued" following "remediation and close out by inspectors."

"Additionally, Royal Lifesaving Queensland representatives will have completed an audit of the water park's lifesaving procedures and safety signage," Davidson said.

The company has said that its Thunder River Rapids ride will also be demolished.

The theme parks raked in 7.6 million Australian dollars (5.67 million U.S. dollars) in revenue last November, the company said. It has also incurred operating costs of up to 4.2 million Australian dollars (3.14 million U.S. dollars) for the month, and it is expected to incur about 1.6 million Australian dollars (1.2 million U.S. dollars) in one-off costs related to the incident.

A coroner's investigation into the incident is ongoing. Endit