LIFE-SIZE dinosaurs have returned to Rosewood for the first time in more than 165 million years.

A theropod, known as the Rosewood Swamp Tramper, is the centrepiece of the new display at Johnston Park on John St, Rosewood.

The project was first mooted in 2016 to pay homage to the region's prehistoric past.

Experts were able to confirm the previous discovery of dinosaur footprints in the mines around Rosewood.

Aiden Makowski spent some time at Johnston Park yesterday.

"They're pretty cool,” he said. "They look really life like.”

Aiden, 10, is a self-confessed lover of dinosaurs.

Each day he does a quiz about the prehistoric creatures and shares facts with his parents.

The family stopped by the park yesterday after hearing about the new statues.

Ipswich City Council workers set the dinosaurs in the foundation this week.

Evidence for the occurrence of Rosewood dinosaurs and in neighbouring areas comes in the form of fossilised footprints.

The Rosewood fossils are contained in rock located up to 140 metres below the surface and were discovered between the 1930s and 1990s during tunnel-mining for coal.

Almost a dozen Rosewood underground mines are known to have contained dinosaur footprints, most notably are the Lanefield, Westvale, Oakleigh, Roughrigg collieries.

Theropod footprints are the most common dinosaur fossil in the Rosewood area and may reflect the region's ancient swamp settings were a preferred environment for these meat-eater dinosaurs.

David Pahlke, who as councillor commissioned the project, said Ipswich was the best site in Australia for fossils.

"Anything that brings tourism dollars to Rosewood we should all be in favour of,” he said.

- Hayden Johnson