bush rat

plural bush rats

1. AustraliaAny of various rat-sized rodents and marsupials, especially local species of Rattus.First known use 19th c.

   The noise ceased the moment I crawled into the attic, but something was rotten in the roof, and a putrid smell and pyramids of chewed cardboard suggested that possums or bush rats had nested in boxes stacked with the previous owner's red and yellow moodscapes.

   2004, Nicholas Shakespeare, In Tasmania, Harvill Press, p. 18

2. The rodent, Rattus fuscipes, of coastal eastern and southern Australia.