Tasmanian authorities introduce schools jumping castle ban

The aftermath of yesterday’s jumping castle tragedy at Hillcrest Primary School in northern Tasmania, which has already claimed the lives of five children, has prompted the state’s Education Department to ban the use of inflatable play structures at its schools.

The Department called for an immediate ban shortly after the incident on Thursday morning, which was followed by a formal directive sent out to all state schools and teachers this afternoon.

In the directive, Tasmanian Department of Education Senior Work Health and Safety Adviser, Mark Lobban wrote “following the tragic incident at Hillcrest Primary school yesterday the decision has been made to place a ban on the use of all jumping castles and inflatable amusement equipment on all (Department) sites.

"This extends to cover all external hirers of (Department) sites.

"The ban will remain in place until further notice."

A spokeswoman for the Education Department confirmed the ban, advising media “the Department has put a hold on the use of jumping castle style equipment until the results of the investigation are known.”

Jumping castles are regulated as part of a national standard, and the regulation of jumping castle operation in Tasmania falls to WorkSafe Tasmania as part of the Justice Department.

As reported by local Tasmanian newspaper the Northern Beaches Review, the Tasmanian Department of Justice spokeswoman explained "WorkSafe Tasmania had not received incident notifications of complaints about the use of jumping castles since 2019".

As part of those standards, all jumping castles and "inflatable amusement devices that are continuously blown and have a height of three metres or more" are required to be registered.

It is not currently known whether the jumping castle involved in yesterday’s incident, understood to be operated by a company called Taz-Zorb, met that requirement.

The Tasmanian Department of Justice spokeswoman could not confirm if the jumping castle was registered as the incident was "subject to an ongoing investigation", adding "the Department of Education has policies and procedures in place in relation to holding a range of activities on school sites. These policies and procedures are reviewed and updated regularly."

Jumping castle hires cancelled across the nation
With the country shocked and saddened by the loss of the five students, hirers are reporting cancellations of jumping castle bookings in all states and territories.

Fearing the impact of a ban being widened, Australian Amusement Association (AAA) spokesman Damian De Jong was reported by Launceston newspaper The Examiner to have said a permanent ban on jumping castles as a result of the incident would bring about an end to the income of about 1000 families who makes money from inflatable devices.

De Jong advised "I don't think we need more regulation, but we do need more education about what clients can look for to make sure they're getting a good operator.”

De Jong said the industry was "highly regulated" and problems generally only arose when "backyard operators" did not follow regulations.

Toowoomba jumping castle business expresses condolences
Bounce Me Happy, a Toowoomba-based jumping castle hire business, has provided a statement on the incident.

Passing condolences on to the families, first responders and children involved, the post advised “this has absolutely hit home tonight as you can imagine as with everyone, and we can’t even imagine the pain that they are all experiencing

“To everyone, we would like to state we have been in the industry for the past eight years, and we have had to cancel jumping castles due to high wind speeds and bad weather – we are beyond strict with this rule.

“We also set up all of our castles to Australian Standards and above.”

The post went on to highlight that safety was its top priority, going on to emphasise “our pegs to anchor our castles down are made professionally and above the Australian standard size … we also have always held liability insurance from the day we have started our business, which is extremely important to have in this industry.

“An important question for all customers to always ask when hiring a castle is if the business holds this insurance and do they have a risk assessment in place.”

Images: A jumping castle understood to be similar to the one at the centre of yesterday's tragedy (top), part of the Tasmanian Department of Education directive on the immediate ban on jumping castles sent out to all state schools and teachers this afternoon (middle) and an extract from Bounce Me Happy's Facebook post on the indicent from yesterday (below).