Dreamworld tragedy: Grieving family mourn 'gentle soul'

People leave floral tributes to the accident victims outside the main entrance to Dreamworld....
People leave floral tributes to the accident victims outside the main entrance to Dreamworld. Photo: AAP via REUTERS
Family members of the New Zealand woman killed in an accident at a Gold Coast theme park on Tuesday have rushed to the Gold Coast to support her grieving husband and two young children.

Cindy Low (42) died when the raft she was riding in flipped on a conveyor belt on Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids ride about 2.20pm local time. She was one of six people in the raft.

Earlier, she had become separated from her family and agreed to go on the ride with her 10-year-old son Kieran and four strangers.

The other four were Canberra woman Kate Goodchild (32), her brother Luke Dorsett (35) and his partner Roozbeh Araghi (38) - who all died in the accident - and Goodchild's 12-year-old daughter, who survived.

Low's husband, Mathew, took their daughter, 6-year-old Isla, in a separate raft.

Low died on the wooden conveyor belt when her group's inflatable raft crashed into another, flipping and killing all four adults at the scene.

A terrified Kieran was thrown clear, escaping serious injury.

He is said to be traumatised and is being comforted by his father.

An onlooker said his sister Isla was screaming, "Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!" as she watched her mother's raft flip and crash into another.

The couple married in November 2011 and have been living in Sydney, more recently Gosford, for more than 10 years.

Rose Haskill, who was a bridesmaid with Low at a mutual friend's wedding 14 years ago, said she was a "gentle soul".

"She was older than me so we weren't close friends but she was a gentle soul, quiet and seemed very kind," Haskill said yesterday.

Mathew Low, a business systems specialist for hearing aid company Oticon, originally from New Plymouth, in New Zealand, is in a state of "intense grief".

A statement from the company, in North Ryde, read: "The family of Ms Cindy Low has requested privacy and respect at this time of loss and sadness".

Cindy Low's father-in-law, Bruce Low, flew to Australia yesterday afternoon to comfort his son and the two children.

"Ms Low's family was devastated by the tragic loss of partner and mother Cindy Low, who was killed in the catastrophic incident at Dreamworld," the family said in a statement yesterday.

"The family are traumatised and kindly request that their privacy be respected as they try to come to terms with this tragic loss."

A neighbour of Cindy Low's mother-in-law, Dianne Bond, said she was "very sad" for the family.

Bond left for Australia yesterday morning.

Her husband, Mathew Low's stepfather, came over to tell the neighbour the news, but was likely to head over to Australia as well.

Bruce Low told 1 News his daughter-in-law was a "lovely person -- a fantastic person".

Kawerau mayor Malcolm Campbell said the community was in shock after the news that one of the victims was one of their own.

"Our hearts go out to the family. The whole town is a little bit stunned, actually," he said.

"We heard about it on the TV last night. But now that we've found out it was somebody who was born and raised here in Kawerau, it's a bit of shock, to be honest".

Campbell said members of the community were already rallying to support not only Low's family but also each other.

He acknowledged that Cindy Low came from "quite a large family" which he knew well too.

But out of respect for them, he would not comment directly about her.

"It's a pretty tight-knit community here and we'll all be gathering around and supporting the family as best we can."

- additional reporting Sydney Daily Telegraph

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