Rodents are hard to identify from photos at the best of times, but you must like making it really hard. This looks like it was run over or jumped on. Among the local species that look anything like this specimen, if the tail is bent forward over the back and reaches past the nose it is Rattus rattus the introduced Black Rat. Which is hard to tell because the body is so crunched up. And does the ear folded forward reach past the mid point of the eye? What about the pattern on the soles of the hind feet? I cant tell about the ear or the feet but the tail looks shorter than the head-body length and has more hair than most R. rattus I have seen so I guess it is Rattus fuscipes, the native Bush Rat.
Don, sorry for the terrible photos, but obviously the rat had been dead for a while and it was rather unpleasant being anywhere near it, so it was not a heap of fun to photograph! If I had known about the hind feet I would have endeavoured to get better photos of them, I guess I'll know for next time. @SuziBond will be interested to know the id though, so thanks!
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