Under-fire Ardent Leisure chief executive Deborah Thomas has apologised to families of victims from this week's fatal accident at Dreamworld.
Ms Thomas, who has been criticised for her handling of the parent company to the theme park's response to the tragedy, made an emotional visit to the Gold Coast on Friday.
Flanked by Dreamworld chief executive Craig Davidson, Ms Thomas visited a floral tribute to the four victims of Tuesday's tragedy following a private memorial for staff at the venue.
She said the park won't open until at least the funerals have been held. No rides would open until internal and external safety audits were conducted on every attraction.
Ms Thomas came under scrutiny for accepting an $A843,000 ($NZ896,000) bonus at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday and has since announced she would donate the cash portion of it to charity.
She also received criticism for claiming she'd spoken to all the family members only to have the mother of two of the victims say she hadn't heard from anyone at Ardent Leisure or Dreamworld.
"I would like to say that if I haven't handled it as well as I could - we thought we were doing the right things in terms of the way we approached it through the police - but if the families are watching, I have spoken to a number of them and we will look after them," Ms Thomas said.
Labelling the tribute as "extraordinary", Ms Thomas paid tribute to the park's staff for their response to the week's events.
"We had the most wonderful ceremony and we are all here today to be part of the family, to hug each other, to provide support to each other," she said.
"Everybody has been moved by this. Everybody is suffering from this and saddened and it's not just the people who work with us, but their families as well, so I hope that this is the beginning of the healing process."
Probe continues into tragedy
A father of two of the victims wants to know why his loved ones died in horrific circumstances.
Shayne Goodchild, whose daughter Kate Goodchild (32) and son Luke Dorsett (35) died at the theme park, read a statement on behalf of the victims' families on Friday.
Thanking Australians for their overwhelming outpouring of support, Mr Goodchild said the families are desperate to know how a day of fun turned into unimaginable horror.
"Like everyone else in Australia we want to know what went wrong," he said. "To say this is just not fair doesn't begin to express our despair. We want to know why our loved ones were taken away from us in such horrific circumstances."
Mr Dorsett's partner Roozi Araghi (38) and 42-year-old New Zealander Cindy Low, who was living in Sydney, also died.
Ms Goodchild's 12-year-old daughter Ebony and Ms Low's 10-year-old son were on the raft that flipped at the end of the Thunder River Rapids ride, but survived.
Flanked by his daughter's partner Dave Turner, who witnessed the tragedy, Mr Goodchild said his granddaughter would need all the support and strength the family could muster.
He declined to comment on the response of Dreamworld or parent company Ardent Leisure, insisting the families would wait for the outcome of a coronial investigation into the accident.
Police continue to investigate the scene of the accident, with the park's status as an active crime scene playing a role in Dreamworld abandoning plans to make Friday's memorial a public service.
Dreamworld has also defended its safety record against criticism from the Australian Workers Union, which says it has been warning about problems at the park for years. The theme park's management says the ride was inspected as recently as last month.
Queensland Employment Minister Grace Grace was among those who laid flowers at the growing tribute to the victims outside the park's entrance. Ms Grace said the AWU's response was right.
"They did the right thing. They put in what their concerns were, whether anyone could have predicted this particular event happening is very difficult and, of course, those concerns should be raised," she said.
