bush rat

bush rat (plural bush rats)

1. (Australia) Any of various rat-sized rodents and marsupials, especially local species of Rattus. [from 19th c.]
   • 2004, Nicholas Shakespeare, In Tasmania, Harvill Press, p. 18:

     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.

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

• tarbush, turbahs