Jeff the T-Rex

The name was a joke at the expense of the then Queensland deputy premier, Jeff Seeney, with whom Palmer was publicly at odds. The ABC reported in November 2012 that Palmer had erected the Tyrannosaurus and wanted to bring in another 149 of the creatures, and he largely did: the resort was eventually rebranded Palmersaurus and filled with them. Jeff was the first and stayed the most famous.

He did not last. In the early hours of 3 March 2015 fire crews were called to the resort and found Jeff already well alight. They put the blaze out in twenty minutes and could not save him. Police investigated whether the fire had been lit deliberately; Palmer told the ABC he did not believe arson was involved, and the cause was reported as an electrical fault. Contemporary reports variously described him as nine or ten metres, which is the sort of discrepancy that survives when the subject has burned down.

Palmer said afterwards that he was still deciding whether to bring in a replacement once what remained of Jeff was dismantled. Nothing was installed in his place. The resort itself has since become one of the country's better-known ghost resorts, and the dinosaur that briefly made it famous is gone from the site entirely.