Hillcrest Primary School students were celebrating the last day of school when what has been described as a freak gust of wind lifted a jumping castle 10 metres in the air.
Nine children fell from the jumping castle while it was airborne.
The council’s sustainable development director Geraldine Christou said the decision not to allow inflatables at scheduled events on council land was a safety-first approach.
“We had some private operators who made their own decision not to use inflatables and we had several public events planned where we decided it was safest not to proceed with inflatables,” Ms Christou said.
There was also concern about the broader emotional impact of the Tasmanian tragedy on parents and children attending holiday events.
The council will closely follow the coronial inquiry into the Tasmanian incident, including any interim safety recommendations.
Future events involving inflatables will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the council’s risk management team.
This decision has affected how local inflatable party hire groups, such as It’s Party Time Jumping Castles, function for council events.
Owners of the company, Leonie and Rowan Simpson, have changed how they run activities.
“Basically everything we have has some sort of inflatable component to it — that’s our whole business besides the spray-on tattoo — but we’ve had to adapt to that,” Mr Simpson said.
“A lot of other places like some caravan organisations have put a hold on inflatable rides but are happy to go with inflatable games like the basketball hoop and archery ... the council have decided to ban everything, which we’ve just had to adapt to, and that’s all right.”
GV Inflatable Nation manager Nab Gill said the ban didn’t affect his business, as it was an indoor centre, but staff had always been aware of the dangers of outdoor jumping castles.
“There’s a reason why we don’t hire our jumping castles outdoors, we see it as a chance for accidents to happen and prefer to keep it indoors,” he said.
The tragedy in Tasmania has not been the only incident involving inflatable equipment. In 2014, in Bannockburn, near Geelong, three teenagers were flung off a castle caught in a gust of wind.
In 2019, four children were thrown off a jumping castle in south-western Sydney in similar circumstances. Another incident occurred in Tabbita, NSW, in 2020, with two children aboard.
