"I love you, bub. Have a good day".
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Those were the last few words Georgie Burt said to her son Zane Mellor when she dropped him off at Hillcrest Primary School on December 16, 2021.
A few hours later, a freak wind gust lifted an inflatable jumping castle into the air on the school's oval, killing Zane and five of his classmates during end-of-year celebrations.
Ms Burt was at her mother's place for coffee when she was called by Zane's dad who said something was going on at Hillcrest and children had died.
"I didn't even put my shoes on, I just went," Ms Burt told an inquest in Devonport in Tasmania on Monday.
"(But) I thought it was a small incident being blown out of proportion.
"Then we saw police cars to the bottom of the (school) hill and thought, 'What is going on?'"
Ms Burt was the first person to give evidence on the opening day of the inquest, which is examining issues including safety and potential education department deficiencies.
She started running around the school to find Zane before being told he had been taken to a nearby hospital.
There, she saw medical workers trying to resuscitate children and spotted a close friend of Zane's, Peter Dodt, on a bed.
It wasn't until the afternoon she was spoken to by police officers who told her Zane had died.
"My entire being and my world just crashed around me," she said.
"It felt like someone had grabbed into my chest and ripped my heart out whole."
Ms Burt said she was told Zane's body was on its way to the coroner and she couldn't see him.
"I later found that he didn't leave Hillcrest, he was still up there on the grass," she said.
"Was anyone holding his hand? Were they looking after him like I would have?"
She didn't see Zane's body until at a funeral home three days later.
Zane was among six to die in the tragedy, while another three children were seriously injured.
There was a lack of direct contact from the school afterwards and "nobody wanted to talk about it" because they wanted to "save face", Ms Burt said.
She didn't hear from anyone official at the school or education department until February the following year, she said.
"All our families want is transparency, that's all we want," she said.
The inquest is examining the deaths of Zane, Peter and their classmates Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Jye Sheehan, Chace Harrison and Addison Stewart. All were aged between 11 and 12.
Evidence obtained by police suggests the castle was tethered at four of its eight anchorage points, counsel assisting the coroner Maree Norton said during opening submissions.
An inflatable arena containing inflatable Zorb balls had 32 anchorage points but was held down by only six pegs, she said.
The tethering of the inflatable items will be closely examined during the inquest, which will continue hearings this week and hold further sittings in November and February.
Rosemary Gamble, operator of Taz-Zorb which set up inflatable equipment at the school, was in 2025 found not guilty of criminal workplace health and safety breaches.
It was found Ms Gamble could have taken further steps in relation to the castle's anchorage, but even if she had, it would have made no difference to the outcome.
The coroner can make different findings but cannot make rulings of criminal guilt.
Ms Gamble had set up inflatable equipment at previous end-of-year celebrations at the school, which had been "very successful" events, the inquest was told.
Ms Gamble had a policy of not operating the castle if winds were tipped to exceed 25km/h.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecast for December 16 was light winds, reaching 15 to 20km/h by the evening, Ms Norton said.
Several witnesses, including teachers and nearby residents, said the morning was largely windless before a "mini-tornado" hit around 10am.
The coroner will hear evidence from a weather expert that cool sea air coming into contact with warm air caused an unprecedented and unpredictable "dust devil", Ms Norton said.