The Royal Adelaide Show has concluded for another year with a total attendance of 533,145 over the nine days.

This figure again means South Australia’s Royal Adelaide Show is the most highly attended major event in Australia based on a percentage of State population.

The management team deserve congratulations for their efforts in delivering a great event.

During the Show, the question of ride safety took a high profile in the media. The Society will work closely with SafeWork SA and the ride industry to ensure that ride safety matters continue to be a high priority.

An incident on the Twin Flip ride on Friday evening snowballied into a major event and the ensuing publicity increased every day.

SafeWork SA closed the ride and issued a seizure notice which surprised everybody in the severity of the reaction to an incident like this.

Then an incident on the Merry Go Round created more attention from SafeWork SA and the media. On Monday, the Claw had a motor fault and four hours after the fault stopped the ride,

SafeWork SA issued a prohibition notice. This ride was closed for two days and vilified in the press as another unsafe ride.

The unwarranted media coverage containing no facts persecuted the rides and ride owners for being cowboys and confused safety issues with normal systems operating correctly. This situation was compounded by SafeWork SA issuing media releases stating their concerns about these rides. While this was occurring, the weather turned bad, delivering over 27mm of rain and strong cold winds.

The end result was that the Show Society reported an affected attendance and the ride operators reported a 20 to 30 per cent drop in revenue. One 18 month old ride worth close to AUS$1m missed operating during the whole show and has been seized by Safe work SA. The ride owners have unanimously told me that the risk of operating their equipment in SA is not worth it and unless we can have productive meetings with Safework SA, they doubt they will return to the Adelaide Show.

This is not a satisfactory outcome and there will be many losers, including the Show Society, the many happy customers and the SA economy losing a large injection of spending by the ride operators.

This situation is a perfect example of the differences in regulations between states and their interpretation and enforcement.

A working committee consisting of representatives from the Show Society and amusement ride operators has been established to work with Safework SA to resolve the situation.

We will keep you posted on future developments.

Phil Durkin