‘‘Jeff’’ was reported alight in the middle of the night.

Fire crews extinguished the fire in 20 minutes in the early hours of Tuesday morning but were unable to save Jeff, whose extinction is being blamed on an electrical fault.

Only his skeleton remains.

Mr Palmer reportedly named the T-Rex after former deputy premier Jeff Seeney, with whom he had many public disagreements on policies and politics.

At the time of his installation three years ago, Mr Palmer tweeted a photo of the dinosaur with the comment: ‘‘Meet ’Jeff’ ... he’s big, grumpy, has a wart on his bottom ... and going nowhere.’’

Coolum general manager Simon Stodart says staff are mourning the loss of Jeff, who had stood proudly outside the Sunshine Coast golf resort club house for three years.

‘‘He’s definitely irreplaceable,’’ he told AAP.

Mr Palmer was less affected by the news, saying there were 160 other dinosaurs at the park that people could still visit.

The resort is carrying out inspections on the other animatronic dinosaurs to ensure they don’t meet the same fate as Jeff.

AAP