Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01713:body:0:p16
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01713
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 115994–118836

& Janetzki 2013). Despite occurring in intertidal and semi-aquatic habitats, the hind feet of the water mouse are not webbed (Thomas 1889). The water mouse has a strong, acrid odour (Gynther & Janetzki 2013).
Figure 1: A compilation of water mouse images displaying this species' size and key features including grey fur with white flecking in some individuals, contrasting white belly, feet, and lower snout and cheeks, and short tail.
Sources: © Ian Gynther (top left & top right @ Maroochy River in 2014; centre left @ Bribie Island; bottom left @ west K'gari/Fraser Island in 2016), © Alex Dudley (centre right), and © Wildwise Environmental (bottom right @ Sunshine Coast).

3.3                  Distribution
Recorded knowledge about the water mouse distribution is limited to three disparate locations in coastal and subcoastal northern Australia:
1)        The southern and central Queensland coast (Coomera to Cannonvale).
2)        Far north Queensland.
3)        The Top End of the Northern Territory including the Tiwi Islands.
Outside Australia, the water mouse is known from the coastal floodplains of southern New Guinea (Hitchcock 1998).
The water mouse is rarely encountered, with records scattered throughout its range. It is known to occur in many coastal areas from Coomera on the Gold Coast to Cannonvale on the Whitsunday Coast. Extensive water mouse surveys and detections have occurred in southern Queensland (Dwyer et al. 1979; Van Dyck 1996; Burnham 2000; Van Dyck & Gynther 2003; Gynther 2011; Kaluza et al. 2016; Kaluza 2016a; 2016b; 2016c; 2016d; 2016e; 2016g; 2018; Sutherland 2017), and around Mackay (Ball et al. 2004). Sporadic detections have occurred in intervening areas (e.g. QGC 2013).
In far north Queensland, there are credible reports of water mouse in the Hinchinbrook Channel and the Mourilyan area in the late 1990s and early 2000s (WMRG 2022) and confirmed records from Cairns in 2017 (Ball & Mitchell 2018). Within the greater Cairns area it is known from the lower Barron River delta, with confirmed sightings at Barr Creek and adjacent to the airport (Ball & Mitchell 2018) and detection of feeding sign on Redden Island and at the mouth of Richter Creek (Mitchell 2021 pers. comm.). There are no recorded water mouse detections from coastal northern Australia between Cairns and Arnhem Land.
The water mouse is poorly known from a few dispersed records in the Northern Territory: the floodplains of the Glyde River and Tomkinson River in Arnhem Land, the South Alligator River in Kakadu National Park, Andranangoo Creek on Melville Island, and the Daly River (Redhead & McKean 1975; Magnusson et al. 1976; Woinarski 2000; Woinarski et al. 2000).
In southern New Guinea, the water mouse is recorded from Wando Village in the Tonda Wildlife Management Area (Hitchcock 1998; Hitchcock and Gabriel