00:01This afternoon we heard for the first time in open court details from Rosemary Gamble who owned the
00:08Jumping Castle at the centre of the Hillcrest Primary School tragedy. She was charged criminally
00:13in 2023 and went to a two-week hearing in 2024 and was ultimately found not guilty of that charge
00:21in 2025 but throughout that entire time we have not heard directly from her or about her experience
00:27of the tragedy itself and this afternoon just after four o'clock for the first time we heard in
00:33her own words what it was like to be there as the dust devil as it's been described a mini
00:38tornado
00:39swept across the school oval and lifted the Jumping Castle into the air. She said it felt like it was
00:46over all over in three or four seconds that in one moment the the dust devil passed over and suddenly
00:54she said it felt like you blinked and as you blinked the Jumping Castle disappeared.
01:00Ms Gamble had been giving evidence for several hours already today when she got to that part of the
01:06of the tragedy itself all the evidence that we had heard prior to that was relatively dense and
01:12technical evidence but then when she got to the discussion of the actual tragedy she became
01:19emotional for the first time appeared to begin crying she was appearing in the court via video
01:25link so it was a little bit difficult to see but she picked up a tissue from the table in
01:29front of her
01:29and began to dab her eyes as she talked about how she experienced those what she said was just a
01:36few
01:37seconds of her life almost five years ago. The council assisting the coroner Marie Norton SC referred
01:43to an affidavit in which Ms Gamble has discussed the effects on her life which will be tendered on
01:49the inquest but we didn't hear any further details about that Ms Gamble did not say anything in court
01:55today about how the tragedy has affected her life and Sandy the inquest continues tomorrow what are you
02:01expecting to hear then? So Ms Gamble's evidence is continuing tomorrow morning she will be questioned by
02:09other lawyers involved in the inquest but Marie Norton the council assisting the coroner her
02:16questioning her line of questioning has now ended for the day ended for the inquest when Ms Gamble
02:22resumes her evidence tomorrow morning it's unclear how long that will go for we are also expecting to
02:29hear from retired Tasmania police in Detective Inspector Kim Stephen who was one of the most senior
02:35police officers on the day of the tragedy and he was there one of the first on the scene so
02:40we will
02:41be hearing expecting to hear from him tomorrow as well and that will be the end of the second block
02:46of
02:47hearings for the coronial inquest into the Hillcrest Primary School tragedy but that it will resume in February next year.
