4 deaths at Dreamworld’s Thunder River Rapids ride cause share of Ardent Leisure to plummet by 22%

The death of four guests at Dreamworld’s Thunder River Rapids ride is becoming a nightmare for Ardent Leisure, parent company of the Australian theme park. The ride gone wrong that is the favourite of many young Australians is causing a 22 percent plummet in shareprices of Ardent Leisure, owner of Dreamworld.

It is the first major incident involving Ardent Leisure, formed out of the Macquarie Leisure Trust which owns Dreamworld. Ardent has been listed with the ASX since 1998 using the ticker AAD. Dreamworld and the adjoining WhiteWater World are valued at $235 million. As of 3:58 am GMT of Wednesday, shareprices of AAD were down 13.62 percent to $2.02 from a high of $2.23.

Australian Financial Review identifies the four victims as siblings Luke Dorset, 35, and Kate Goodchild, 32, Dorsett’s partner Roozi Araghi, and Cindy Low, 42. The first three are from Canberra, while Low is from New Zealand.

Dorset, Goodchild and Araghi were on a holiday from Canberra. Low has been a Sydney for the last 10 years with her husband. The couple, with their 10-year-old child were also on a Gold Coast holiday. Herald Sun reports that Low did not know the three other victims but just shared the ill-fated raft with them.

Her son was also in the raft but survived the accident. He is now in a hospital. Goodchild’s son and daughter were thrown from the ride and escaped with minor injuries but suffered the trauma of seeing their mother drown.

Because of the tragedy, Dreamworld Australia remains close until further notice.