The Year 5 and 6 students who died had been enjoying end-of-year celebrations on the school’s oval when a “dust devil” wind gust lifted the castle and other inflatable devices into the air.

An inquest is examining processes surrounding the set-up of the castle, which was held down by four pegs at half of its eight anchor points.

Rosemary Gamble, the owner of company Taz-Zorb which set up the equipment, was in 2025 cleared of criminal workplace health and safety breaches.

Gamble told the inquest on Friday she had in the past also used star pickets to secure the castle but stopped doing so because they were unsafe and a potential trip hazard.

Longer star pickets used to secure other inflatable objects on the day of the tragedy weren’t suitable for the jumping castle, she said.

Gamble previously said four pegs were supplied with the castle when she bought it from Chinese supplier East Inflatables in 2015.

Lawyer for the victims’ families Peter Hamilton questioned whether Ms Gamble was safety conscious, considering four pegs were used, available star pickets weren’t used and Taz-Zorb’s wind monitoring device was broken.

“Suggest away. I disagree,” Ms Gamble said.

Gamble said staff at private schools where she had set up the castle performed inspections and ticked off a checklist, but that didn’t happen at Hillcrest Primary School on the day.

She conceded a risk assessment document used by Taz-Zorb was outdated and the scenario of the castle becoming airborne wasn’t covered.

However, she said she performed real-time risk assessments during events and her safety knowledge had improved over time.

Gamble, as well as other witnesses, said there was no wind on the oval prior to the accident.

She told the inquest the not-guilty criminal ruling didn’t provide closure, and she was reluctant to speak about the impact of the tragedy on her life.

“The impact ... is nothing compared to what has happened to the families of those children,” she said.

“It just doesn’t seem important.”

Gamble earlier recalled seeing the jumping castle swirling in the air “enclosed” in the mini-tornado dust devil.

“When I looked at it, it reminded me of the scene from the Wizard of Oz with the house going up,” she said.

The inquest, which is also examining relevant national standards, began in September and will hold further hearings.

AAP