By Carolyn Webb
We can’t yet board a time machine to transport us back 66 million years to see a live Tyrannosaurus rex. But Melbourne Museum is displaying a version of the real thing that is less scary because it can’t eat you.
The Carlton institution has opened an exhibit of the real fossil skeleton of a T-Rex, just in time for the winter school holidays.
It won’t eat you: the Tyrannosaurus rex fossil skeleton at Melbourne Museum.Credit: Eugene Hyland
It’s the first of its type to be displayed in Victoria and only the second in Australia.
Near complete with 199 bones and named Victoria, it is the museum’s star school holiday attraction and will run until October 20.
The skeleton is 12.1 metres long and 3.7 metres high. It weighs 139 kilograms, and was discovered in the town of Faith in the US state of South Dakota in 2013.
The exhibition, called Victoria the T. rex is one of the less conventional school holiday activities to be found aside from the usual craft classes, sports clinics and movie sessions.
Energetic teenagers might like The Smash Room, in which anyone from age 13 or over can smash up objects ranging from crockery to glasses to computers, using tools like baseball bats and sledgehammers.
The company has outlets in Moorabbin, in Melbourne’s south-east, and Keilor East in the city’s north-west.
The Smash Room spokesperson Sophia Pillirone said venues will be open from Thursdays to Sundays inclusive from noon to 9pm. Pillirone says: “It releases endorphins, you have fun and feel fresh afterwards.”
Let her rip: A customer destroys a TV at The Smash Room.
Customers have included groups of nurses, and couples on date nights. One man proposed to his girlfriend in a smash room. Prices start at $60 per person with add-on costs for bigger items like TVs.
A more sedate holiday activity might be cat cuddling sessions at the Cat Protection Society of Victoria in Greensborough, in Melbourne’s north-east. They will run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Society marketing and communications manager Rachel Bitzilis said 30-minute sessions cost $25 per group of up to four, which must include at least one adult and up to three children under 15.
The price includes a private tour of the cat shelter and meeting and playing with a cat or kitten. It also includes one free coffee, hot chocolate or milkshake per group.
Bitzilis says customers taking part include families considering adopting a cat and wanting to see whether their child will like it, and children with relatives who are allergic to cats and can’t have one at home.
Best friends: Ava, 12, enjoys cat cuddling at the Cat Protection Society of Victoria.
“Also often people with young kids want to do something meaningful with their children on the holidays, that gives back,” Bitzilis said. Proceeds from the program go into the running of the not-for-profit shelter.
Bitzilis says the cats, who are awaiting adoption, benefit by being socialised and exercised.
Tickets to the Victoria the T. rex exhibition can be bought at Melbourne Museum or its website museumsvictoria.com.au
Bookings for The Smash Room can be made at www.thesmashroom.com.au
To book for cat cuddling, go to catprotection.com.au
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