Specimen C 4867 Study Skin - Water Rat, Lake Boga, 1857, Hydromys chrysogaster É. Geoffroy, 1804

Summary

This specimen was collected during William Blandowski's expedition to the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers (December 1856 - December 1857). Its original tag '743' is still intact and the expedition register lists it as 'Beaver rat'. It arrived at the museum in the seventh consignment from the expedition including only specimens collected at 'Lake Boga and the Murrumbidgee-Murray rivers junction' from 28 February-24 March 1857.

This is one of 34 mammal species and one of eight rodent species recorded throughout the expedition. This species was only recorded at Gunbower Creek and Lake Boga in Feb-Mar 1857 and nowhere else on the 12 month trip, and it was the only rodent seen at Gunbower, the expedition's base camp from January-February 1857. Krefft in an unpublished narrative of the expedition observed that 'the golden bellied Beaver Rat exists in the swamps', and in his published paper (1866) reported that at Lake Boga it was 'often observed after sundown, gambolling upon the shores of that beautiful lake'. The name given to the Water rat by the Aboriginal people at Gunbower and Lake Boga is not recorded.