Eliza Janssen

New York has rats; Queensland has cane toads; Melbourne, for whatever reason, has dinosaurs. Over the last year, the prehistoric beasties have been brought back from the dead and plonked across the city, taking over four Victorian zoos from March until July and terrorising Brunswick not once but twice with 'immersive dino experiences'. They had been extinct for 65 million years before enjoying a massive cultural renaissance in the 1990s, with media like Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time implanting dino-DNA into the hearts and imaginations of countless obsessed millennials. Why is Melbourne infested with dinosaurs right now, though? And more importantly – which attraction should you stomp into to get your dino fix? Let's explore and find out. As Jeff Goldblum once said of the age of dinosaurs’ inevitable return: life, uh, finds a way. Looking for more fun? Here are the best things to do in Melbourne this week.