So, when someone is called a bush rat, we now know it's a compliment.

>Why are native rats so important?

Australia is home to about 50 living species of rats that have adapted to its environments over thousands if not millions of years.

These rats often perform essential roles in nature...

"We know them to be really good pollinators, especially of our banksias...," "They're good at moving seeds and eating seeds ... they're really good dispersers of fungi spores, the mushrooms that are so key to our ecosystems...

Bush rats have been shown to keep black rats from reinvading places the native species is re-established.

Black rats often like to nest in homes and eat your food, but bush rats prefer to avoid developed places.

"[Bush rats] tend to live in these dense, complex, vegetated, native bushlands," Ms Wauchope said.

Boosting bush rat numbers can also help feed native predators — like goannas, owls and snakes.

Without bush rats these predators sometimes will eat poisoned black rats and then die themselves.