Indoor play centre Funtopia Maribyrnong enters guilty plea for safety breaches after girl, 8, injured in fall

An indoor play centre charged after a child suffered a fractured spine in a horror fall has admitted responsibility for failing to adequately maintain its safety equipment. Entertainment Velocity Pty Ltd, trading as Funtopia Maribyrnong, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, pleading guilty to two breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The Melbourne play centre was charged by the workplace regulator, WorkSafe, in March this year after the eight-year-old girl fell 7m in July 2022 from a rope ladder. WorkSafe prosecutor Tristan Joseph said the venue had been bought by Entertainment Velocity in 2018 and was operating as a franchisee of Funtopia, which has two other locations in Victoria. “The central issue in this case is Entertainment Velocity was very reactive in the way it responded to known risks,” he said. “It’s a facility that deals with play facilities predominantly used by children … children can’t be relied upon to perform their own safety checks and assess whether these are functioning properly.” The court was told a self-belay safety device was found to be “very worn” during an expert assessment after the horror fall. Mr Joseph said at the time there were inadequate protocols in place for checking and monitoring the devices, arguing Entertainment Velocity should have been aware of upkeep protocols from the manufacturer. The court was told the devices should have been replaced annually or sent back to the manufacturer in Bulgaria for recertification. Stephen Russell, for Entertainment Velocity, told the court the company accepted responsibility for the breaches but said this was not a “deliberate effort” to ignore requirements. He told the court that his client had relied to a great extent on the franchisor Funtopia to provide information on safety and maintenance requirements. He said Funtopia had audited the business regularly and Entertainment Velocity staff had conducted daily, monthly and yearly examinations of the belay devices, replacing 12 of 32 units in the four years of ownership. “There were checks and balances. We weren’t on notice our system was inadequate at that stage,” he said. “Obviously, changes have been made subsequently to ensure this doesn’t happen again.” He told the court annual checks of the belay device by a representative of the manufacturer had “not once” mentioned they needed to be replaced. The case was adjourned by Magistrate Louise Wildberger and will return to court in November. In a statement, Funtopia Australia operations manager Wayne Kong-Gardiner said safety was the top priority at all locations, with rigorous training and safety protocols in place. “We wish to express our sincerest condolences to all those affected by the incident involving a fall from a climbing wall at our Maribyrnong franchise location,” he said. “We have been completely co-operative with the authorities at every stage of the process and are pleased to have collaborated with them regarding this matter.”