Now Open: 'Jurassic World: The Exhibition' Is Your Latest Excuse to Indulge Your Dinosaur Obsession in Melbourne
Life-sized versions of the film franchise's creatures have roared into Melbourne, making a patch of Brunswick feel like Isla Nublar.
On the big screen, the Jurassic franchise keeps finding a way. After 1993's page-to-cinemas hit Jurassic Park proved such a smash, more movies were always going to follow. So spawned sequels in 1997 and 2001, then the first three Jurassic World flicks in 2015, 2018 and 2022 — and now there's a fourth of the latter on the way in 2025. But it isn't just on screens that this saga continues to pop up.
Welcome to ... your latest reason to be surrounded by lifelike prehistoric creatures in 2024, Melburnians. After roaring into Sydney in 2023, and teasing a trip further south since early this year, Jurassic World: The Exhibition has opened in Brunswick. Head to The Fever Exhibition Hall from Friday, August 2 and you'll feel like you've been transported to Isla Nublar, complete with a walk through the big-screen saga's famed gates. From there, you'll mosey around themed environments featuring life-sized versions of the movie franchise's dinos, including a brachiosaurus, velociraptors — yes, get ready to say "clever girl" — and a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Attendees can get roaming while staring at animatronics, including the new ankylosaurus and carnotarus. Also linking in with the animated Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous series, there's baby dinos, such as the show's Bumpy.
Now, all that's left is to decide which Jurassic franchise character that you want to emulate (the best choices: Laura Dern's palaeobotanist Ellie Sattler, Sam Neill's palaeontologist Alan Grant and Jeff Goldblum's mathematician Ian Malcolm, of course).
And no, when Michael Crichton penned Jurassic Park in 1990, then Steven Spielberg turned it into a 1993 film, they wouldn't have expected that this'd be the result 31 years — and five more movies — later.
It's been a great time to fascinated with dinosaurs over the past few years — we've seen two seasons of Prehistoric Planet on streaming in 2022 and 2023, too, and Melbourne is currently temporarily home to the largest and most-complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever seen in Australia. Jurassic World: The Exhibition arrives as part of a global tour, after a showcase with the same name displayed in Melbourne back in 2016; however, the new visit comes after stops everywhere from London, San Diego, Paris and Madrid to Seoul, Shanghai and Toronto.
Jurassic World: The Exhibition displays in Melbourne from Friday, August 2, 2024 at The Fever Exhibition Hall, 62 Dawson Street, Brunswick — head to the exhibition's website for tickets.
Images: Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment.
