Jumping castle owner appears at inquest into Hillcrest 2021 tragedy - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A teddy bear and flowers left at Hillcrest Primary School following the tragedy. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)

The operator of the jumping castle business that supplied inflatables on the day of the Hillcrest Primary School tragedy has appeared as a witness in the coronial inquest. 

Rosemary Gamble was found not guilty of failing in her work health and safety duty after a criminal hearing in 2024, but maintained her legal right to silence at the time.

The coronial inquest is due to continue Friday, before adjourning until a third block of hearings planned for February.

The owner of the jumping castle at the centre of the Hillcrest Primary School tragedy has given evidence in open court for the first time.

Rosemary Gamble appeared today via video link in Devonport's Paranaple Centre, which is hearing the coronial inquest into the children's deaths on December 16, 2021.

Students Zane Mellor, Peter Dodt, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan and Chace Harrison died, and three of their classmates were seriously injured when a dust devil tossed the jumping castle they were playing on across their school oval.

The six victims of the Hillcrest jumping castle tragedy, from top left: Chace Harrison, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Zane Mellor. From lower left: Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan, Peter Dodt. (ABC News/Supplied)

At the time, Ms Gamble operated the children's entertainment business Taz-Zorb, which provided the jumping castle and inflatable zorb balls for the school's "Big Day In" end-of-year celebrations.

Two years later, she was criminally charged with failing in her work health and safety duty, for which she was ultimately found not guilty in June 2025 by Magistrate Robert Webster.

Rosemary Gamble has appeared at the inquest. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)

Ms Gamble maintained her legal right to silence during the criminal hearing and only made a public statement through her lawyer outside the court after being acquitted.

But today Ms Gamble submitted to questioning by Maree Norton, counsel assisting the coroner, about how she ran her business and her approach to the safe operation of inflatables.

Ms Gamble said the tragedy occurred very quickly, and that it "felt like" it was all over in seconds after she first became aware of the dust devil.

Ms Gamble had been giving evidence for several hours already when Ms Norton began questioning her about the tragedy itself.

She appeared to become emotional as she spoke and reached for tissues to dab her eyes.

"[The castle] was there and then it just wasn't, like you blinked and as you blinked it disappeared," she said.

Ms Norton then referred to a statement Ms Gamble had provided about the effects of the tragedy on her life, which Ms Gamble agreed she had made, but nothing further was said about it.

The inquest heard Ms Gamble started the business in 2012, but that she had no prior experience operating inflatable amusement devices such as zorb balls and jumping castles.

She said she became inspired to purchase zorb balls after seeing them for the first time in Hobart that year, and that her business often operated at school and community events.

"I wanted to have my own business," she said.

She said she then bought the jumping castle involved in the tragedy in 2015 from the company East Inflatables, which she said she believed to be an Australian company because it had a warehouse in Sydney.

The company, which is based in China, advertised itself as complying with Australian standards, which Ms Gamble said was important to her.

One of the central issues during the criminal trial was the number of anchor pegs the jumping castle came with, and whether an instruction manual was provided by East Inflatables.

During the inquest, it has been established that just four anchors were used on the day of the tragedy, all of which were ripped from the ground or failed when the dust devil lifted the jumping castle into the air.

When asked, Ms Gamble said only four anchor pegs were provided when she bought the castle and that it came without an instruction manual.

She said she searched for an instruction manual on the company's website and found one that was "very basic … I think under one and a half pages".

The tragedy in 2021 stunned the community. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)

Ms Gamble told the inquest she believed the pegs supplied were suitable, and that despite the castle having eight anchor points, four pegs were sufficient, as that was what had been supplied.

When asked by Ms Norton, as a risk-aversion practice, why she did not use all eight anchor points every time she set the castle up, Ms Gamble said at the time she did not believe it was necessary.

"Because we got four pegs with the jumping castle," she said.

But she said she used more than four pegs on some occasions if the ground underneath the castle was soft or if it was a windy day.

The court has heard the castle itself had a warning notice sewn onto the front that it should not be used in winds exceeding about 35km/h, but Ms Gamble said it was her own policy not to use it in winds above 25km/h.

She said it was normal practice to monitor weather forecasts and observations, and to cancel bookings and deflate the castle if conditions became too windy.

The inquest has previously heard there were other heavy-duty anchors, including several star pickets, available to the operators on the day of the tragedy but that they were unused.

Maree Norton asked questions about the number of pegs used on the jumping castle. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)

This week's evidence is the second of three blocks of hearings planned for the coronial inquest, following four days of evidence in September.

As well as Ms Gamble's evidence today, the inquest has this week heard from Hillcrest Primary School teacher Stephen Fenn, a digital forensic specialist, and Ms Gamble's employee Jesse Barrett.

Retired Detective Inspector Kim Steven is slated to give evidence on Friday morning, before the inquest is adjourned for the third block of hearings in February.

The fifth anniversary of the Hillcrest tragedy will be marked next month on Wednesday, December 16.