G'day Murray,

I had overlooked another synonym for the Rufous Wallaby (thylogale billardierii) ... now its official preferred name: Tasmanian Pademelon and, consequently this is the name used by naturalists, guides and rangers. Presumably, a ranger in a Tasmanian National Park would simply call the animal a ‘pademelon’.I can’t say that I heard this name used by ordinary Tasmanians when I lived down there in the 1960s and I tend not to refer to wallabies by a name that had always meant, to me, an introduced weed (paddymelon).

The name Pademelon, for the thylogale, seems to be a Sydney (Dharuk) word - although much the same Aboriginal name occurs as far south as Victoria. I can not see any evidence of its historical use in Tasmania and I suspect that it has been pressed onto the Tasmanian species to keep the taxonomy simple.

There is also another, smaller potorid found in the dry sclerophyll forests of central and eastern Tasmania - the Tasmanian Bettong or Eastern Rat-kangaroo (bettongia gaimardi). This is only about 300 mm tall and strictly nocturnal, so I doubt that this would be the species you saw.

Regards,

Bob Bolton