Clive Palmer gets go-ahead to build world's biggest dinosaur park at Coolum resort

Updated

Billionaire Clive Palmer has been given approval to build the world's biggest dinosaur park at his resort on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Mr Palmer already has two life-size dinosaurs on the golf course at his Coolum resort.

Today, the Sunshine Coast Regional Council unanimously approved Mr Palmer's development application to further develop a dinosaur exhibit at his resort, subject to 30 conditions.

The exhibit will house up to 160 animated replica dinosaurs, adding to those already on display at his resort near Coolum.

The project also includes a vintage car museum.

The council received almost 200 objections to the proposal. They included concerns from resort residents about noise from roaring dinosaurs.

One of the conditions of approval is limiting noise emissions to five decibels above the background noise level.

Councillor Jason O'Pray says he initially had misgivings about the proposal but has changed his mind.

"It's classic, it's subtle, it's small, it's low-impact," he said.

"There's no way this is going to have a massive impact on the community.

"This is a very small, very small, display at best. This is not a theme park, this is not an attraction, this is a very small, 300-metre walk down a path."

'Not Disneyland'

Mr O'Pray says most of the 160 dinosaurs are no taller than him and are not visible unless you are a guest at Mr Palmer's resort.

"If he wants to impact his own guests, then I guess that's a commercial and business decision of his own," he said.

"It is just a display - it's nothing more, it is not Disneyland. I would encourage everyone to go out there and just see how subtle it is.

"It's something that mum and dad will take the kids for a walk down. It's a 300-metre bike track and it's very heavily vegetated.

"In fact, they want to make it more vegetated so it gives that Jurassic feel."

Mr O'Pray previously described the proposal as "classy" but now says a more appropriate word for the attraction is subtle.

"Classy is probably a poor choice of words - it's very much about the family," he said.

"These animals are soft - I was lucky, I got to touch them, I got to feel them.

"They are animated but the noise impact will be very low. I would not have let this go through council if it was high impact."

Topics: local-government, rural-tourism, tourism, company-news, mount-coolum-4573, maroochydore-4558

First posted