Owner Steven Jones had inquired with firms as far away as Sydney, with one broker quoting $40,000 for annual cover — a 500 per cent increase on the previous year’s cost — and others knocking him back altogether.
“They’re trying to tell me there are less insurance companies in the leisure market now (for) anything that is classed as high-risk,” Mr Jones said at the time.
“We’ve never had to put in a claim and that adds to the frustration.”
The AquaCoaster remains closed, with no end to the insurance saga in sight, and ride owners across the country are now on the same slippery slope to oblivion.
Last week it was revealed that travelling show folk responsible for the rides at country and city shows across Australia feared their entire industry was on the brink of collapse because they couldn’t get insurance.
The Victorian’s Showmen’s Guild claimed the industry was “grinding to a halt” after the last insurers covering public liability for travelling show ride operators exited the Australian market – leaving the majority of operators facing lapsed insurance policies by July.
Many show folk have walked away from the Australian market, causing businesses to close as their policies expired.
The operators, who appear at 580 agricultural shows across Australia, are all required to have $20 million in public liability insurance before they can open.
“We really need support – the crisis is real,” executive officer of the Victorian Showmen’s Guild Justine Sinclair told News Ltd this week. “The industry is grinding to a halt.”
The Mildura Show is set to return this year, but it is unknown what rides will be offered.
Already organisers are shifting the show’s focus, explaining it would return to being a “grassroots” community event.
“Our main focus is that we want it community-based and you don’t realise how important that is until it’s not there,” Mildura Show Society president Natalie Hancock told Sunraysia Daily.
“We want community groups to come back to the show and we’d like to fill the showgrounds.”
Country shows are an ingrained part of Australian society, the first one held in Hobart in 1822, designed to encourage farming among the settled colony. Sydney followed the year after, quickly spreading to more than 580 regional shows throughout the country.
But these days country shows are about more than judging the best merino or bull. For kids, in particular, thrill-seeking rides are the main attraction.
Geelong ride operator Brad Verfurth, who is the director of Hi Lite Amusements, said if insurance could not be found, shows would be “killed completely”.
“It is doom and gloom,” he said.
“Everyone’s got their fingers crossed that some solution will come up. But, at the moment there’s no solution and we’re in dire straits.”
CLARIFICATION
In last week’s column, it was incorrectly stated that a footballer who was suspended for not playing in an interleague game would have had to fund his own travel to and from the game. The SFNL clarified this week that the player was offered to have all travel expenses covered, but declined the offer. Sunraysia Daily apologises for the error.
