Child dies in pillar collapse at Rottnest holiday units

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/concrete-pillar-kills-child-in-rottnest-20091027-hivg.html

Sad day for a holiday family, with the death of a 3yr child when a pillar collapsed at a holiday unit.

Time for the RIA to take accountability for the 50yr old accommodation units that are now not safe.

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)


wopjrb's picture

Posts: 1407

Date Joined: 05/03/09

thats sad to hear

Tue, 2009-10-27 18:09

maybe the building should have been inspected by an engineer

Tony Halliday's picture

Posts: 2500

Date Joined: 14/06/07

been a few problems with RIA

Tue, 2009-10-27 18:18

been a few problems with RIA and other body's with so called cultural and heritage listed accommodation meeting modern building standards / requirements
JMO, hope I am wrong here, but a child has died! Now what will happen.

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)

kempy's picture

Posts: 810

Date Joined: 28/05/09

its a terrible thing the

Tue, 2009-10-27 18:31

its a terrible thing the builds on rotto r so poor

____________________________________________________________________________

Dinkum Auto Electrical A/C & Mechanical Unit 10/16 Kent way Malaga 0438755754 Also Mobile

Open 7 days except when we are fishn For all your auto electrical needs

catchalittle's picture

Posts: 1875

Date Joined: 04/09/08

I hope the parents sue the

Tue, 2009-10-27 20:24

I hope the parents sue the pants off the RIA and someone is made accountable for the very sad thing that has happened

____________________________________________________________________________

Nathan

The_Wanderer's picture

Posts: 735

Date Joined: 24/09/08

Yep Some one needs to be

Wed, 2009-10-28 12:21

Yep Some one needs to be held responsible for this. As others have said the structural integrity of the buildings and the overall conditions are not up to scratch. Especially considering the prices they are charging! 

roberta's picture

Posts: 2773

Date Joined: 08/07/08

Yes RIP little one

Wed, 2009-10-28 08:09

my family doesn't go to Rotto anymore, substanded accomadation, prices sky rocketing.  Nice for a day trip.

____________________________________________________________________________

Ginger Tablets Rock

 

Tony Halliday's picture

Posts: 2500

Date Joined: 14/06/07

latest reports is the father

Wed, 2009-10-28 09:42

latest reports is the father and son where in a hammock between the pillar and a tree.

Pillar had to be very substandard in strength or been cracked through to topple that easily. Lateral forces from such a load are not that great.

Some big answers are needed here and a heads should roll at RIA and Government agencies involved.
If this happened on my mine site, I would be looking at criminal charges of neglect and OH&S dereliction of duty. Failure to inspect and ensure the safety of my staff.

Nothing can bring the poor kid back, but strong action and massive upgrades to Rotto can stop it happening again.

Just more proof that Rotto is a substandard 3rd world facility now, with aging and deadly accommodation, poor tourism service and lack of management on the infra structure.

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)

profish540's picture

Posts: 221

Date Joined: 28/03/09

Very sad

Wed, 2009-10-28 18:42

That is devastating news. Got to feel for his poor parents they must be going through hell right now.

Posts: 2321

Date Joined: 03/05/06

saw this recently

Thu, 2009-10-29 00:23

 

saw this recently in the West.  Interesting, in light of the very sad news above.

Rotto 'millionaires paradise'

YASMINE PHILLIPS, The West Australian October 13, 2009, 2:15 am

Claims that Rottnest has become a playground for Perth's most affluent.

WA News / Steve Ferrier ©

Claims that Rottnest has become a playground for Perth's most affluent have been bolstered by new figures showing the most successful suburbs in this summer's ballot were spread throughout wealthy areas.

.....Shadow tourism minister Ljiljanna Ravlich said she was concerned that the new figures appeared to prove that Rottnest had "become a playground for the rich".

She questioned how random the selections were given the high number of residents from wealthy suburbs.

"Rottnest was set up under the Act as a local holiday destination for local people and it was supposed to be a low-cost holiday," Ms Ravlich said. "We are very much moving away from that and it really has become a playground for the rich, which is very concerning . . . there is a distinct trend towards the western suburbs and you would have to wonder how random the ballot realty is."

The authority said the ballot process did not give any advantage to one applicant over another but marketing information indicated almost half of the island's visitors had been more than 10 to 20 times before.

The authority also said it did not keep records based on whether specific individuals had been successful in the ballot on more than one occasion.

A record number of people visited Rottnest last financial year, with more than 600,000 visitors. About 500,000 visited the island in 2007-08.

A survey of more than 1400 visitors showed 96 per cent rated their overall experience as meeting or exceeding their expectations, while satisfaction with general facilities and services, along with recreational activities, met the targets of 85 per cent.

The authority has defended its increased fees and charges, saying they were needed to meet the costs of maintaining the island's environment. It said the new fees brought the island into line with other tourism attractions such as Perth Zoo.

hlokk's picture

Posts: 4293

Date Joined: 04/04/08

Whether its random or not

Thu, 2009-10-29 11:17

Whether its random or not depends on what the applications were. E.g. maybe the 'richer suburbs' get more ballots because they put in more applications than other suburbs. In that case, the western suburbs might get more ballots, but the selections still be completely random (just more random chance a random pick will be from the suburbs that had put in more applications).

 

I wonder how people would react if they wanted to increase the amount of accomodation though?

roberta's picture

Posts: 2773

Date Joined: 08/07/08

On perthnow they've

Thu, 2009-10-29 09:10

 (the Government) closed all the units like what the little one died in, terrible tradegy, I know when my sister and cousin where going for holidays over there they got in every year for 3 weeks their suburbs where Leederville and Floreat.

____________________________________________________________________________

Ginger Tablets Rock

 

Tony Halliday's picture

Posts: 2500

Date Joined: 14/06/07

lots of folk go on boats to

Thu, 2009-10-29 10:30

lots of folk go on boats to Rotto and are not rich or famous!

yes you see the Gin Palaces there, but what about the dozens of 5~6m boats anchored in the smaller bays and on the beach line?

Rotto should have a spread of 3 star to 5 star accommodation for all to use, plus a camping facility for tents.

We have only stayed once in the hotel and it was not worth the money charged for the second rate, run down room. (ps in Thailand at the moment I'm staying in a luxury 4 start (dam nice) room for $35 per day with breakfast.)

it's a case of first world beauty and third wall accomodation at times. This death has high lighted the poor standards and sloppy procedures for checking the safety of the public.
A concrete pillar like that should have had a 24 MPa compression rating at least and with re-enforced bar in in, should never have toppled over, just cracked. If it was just a brick~masonry pillar, then would have been weaker, but not toppled as a solid single unit. I would love to see a core section of it.
ps even here in Thailand where I am on a job at the moment, every pour of concrete gets a slump and six compression block tests done. ( yes we insisted on it, for export back to Australia, but still the did it by the book)

Still this is dam sad day for WA Tourism, what would the headlines have been if it was an Australian child killed in a foreign holiday destination??? We would have howls of poor workmanship, third rate standards etc... Well folks this was on our door step in our back yard!!!!

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)

Tony Halliday's picture

Posts: 2500

Date Joined: 14/06/07

Now with 22 pillars now been

Tue, 2009-11-17 15:59

Now with 22 pillars now been identified as being in need of serious and immediate repairs, why have they not looked at anything else in the units...??? Thats a bloody high figure for facility that was refurbished not to long ago!!!

oh yes, they waiting for something to fall and kill the next child before they will know if anything else is wrong!!!! WTF
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/rottnest-units-needed-urgent-safety-repairs-20091117-ijhy.html

if this turd-brain worked in the mining industry he would be locked up for years for not looking at the rest of the units structural safety!!! just because they have not been informed of other issues and that the last inspection ( oh which missed the pillars as a problem by the way!!!) said the units had no significant issues, doe not mean they are safe and issue free!!!

so much for our world classed safety at Rotto!!!

____________________________________________________________________________

Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~

 It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it

"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)

"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)