Jumping castle owner appears at inquest into Hillcrest 2021 tragedy

Rosemary Gamble, the owner of Taz-Zorb, a business that supplied inflatables for the Hillcrest Primary School event, appeared in a coronial inquest into the 2021 tragedy. Gamble, who operated Taz-Zorb since 2012, was found not guilty of failing in her work health and safety duty following a criminal hearing in 2024. She chose to remain silent during the criminal proceeding and only made a public statement through her lawyer after being acquitted.

The inquest heard that a dust devil tossed the jumping castle Gamble provided across the school oval, resulting in the death of six students and three more who suffered serious injuries. At the time of the incident, Gamble used four anchor pegs to secure the castle, despite it having eight anchor points, as she believed four pegs were sufficient and provided by the manufacturer, East Inflatables.

The inquest also heard about the lack of an instruction manual that came with the castle. Gamble had searched the manufacturer's website and found a manual that was very basic, consisting of only one and a half pages. When questioned about the number of anchor pegs and whether she used all eight, Gamble stated that she assumed four pegs were the minimum or adequate for securing the castle. She did, however, use more than four pegs on occasions when the ground was soft or the weather was windy.

The coronial inquest will continue on Friday, before adjourning until February for a third block of hearings. The fifth anniversary of the Hillcrest tragedy will be marked on December 16.