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Get up close to Tropical North Queensland’s only life-size dinosaur 
skeleton at the Emu Ridge Gallery’s Fossil and Gemstone Museum in Kuranda. The 9m long Allosaurus is a favourite with kids wanting to have their photo taken with a “real” dinosaur and is a drawcard for the museum’s collection of fossils and gemstones at the bottom of the stairs which wind down around the Carnosaur or meat eating dinosaur. Located at the Original Kuranda Markets in Therwine St, Emu Ridge Gallery is one of nine major attractions in Kuranda. The village in the rainforest is home to the region’s most famous and diverse local craft markets, interactive exhibits of birds, butterflies, koalas and snakes, seven art and craft galleries, many interesting shops with handmade goods plus 16 restaurants and cafes. Emu Ridge Gallery owners Chris Maaten and Shane Hebbard spent three days assembling the late Jurassic replica skeleton which was cast from an original fossilised skeleton at a museum in China. “The cast is so well done that when it arrived in pieces a box in Australia, Customs called in palaeontologists from the Brisbane Museum to check if actual dinosaur bones were being illegally imported,” he says. It is the only Allosauraus replica in Queensland and Chris chose that species after visiting the site of the Lark Quarry Dinosaur stampede at Winton where a Carnosaur caused a stampede of two herds of smaller dinosaurs the size of emus and turkeys. 
Chris and Shane are enthusiastic lapidaries and regularly fossick for additions to their well-stocked rock and fossil shop. Emu Ridge Gallery are also local gem specialists, with an enormous range of precious and semi-precious gemstones, beads, pearls, jewellery, specimens, walk through gem cave, and of course, the full size replica Allosaurus skelton, sure to thrill the young and young at heart! Chris and Shane go as often as they can to Mt Surprise, known for topaz, smoky quartz and aquamarines with Chris making his favourite discovery there, an exceptional aquamarine with a brilliant colour which he will soon display.
When you visit Kuranda, make sure you don’t miss this amazing Museum… 7-11 Therwine Street Kuranda Qld 4881 Australia – Mobile: 0408 728 711
E: emuridgegallery@bigpond.com
