caitiedid
The platypus toy lying full-length on a pink and blue floral patchwork quilt, showing its complete nose-to-tail shape. Faded by decades, not by neglect.
Close-up of the vinyl bill and one plastic eye, the fur meeting the smooth bill without a seam. The contradiction the whole toy is built from.
Close-up of a plastic-clawed paw held against a human finger for scale, set against green fabric. Small enough to fit in one hand, still holding its shape.
Overhead view from behind, showing the back and hind feet against a green blanket. Fur intact edge to edge, no bald patches, no gaps.
Close-up of the fur where it curls near the tail, two-tone in tan and cream. Dense enough that sixty years hasn't thinned it.
Close-up of the head from above, the black vinyl bill resting against cardboard. Glossy where the fur is matte, exactly as the real animal is built.
Close-up of the head and eye against the same pink floral quilt, the bill just visible at the edge of frame. Small, worn soft, still watching.
Top-down view from the bill forward, laid on the quilt. The proportions read true to a real platypus, just palm-sized.
Full overhead view on the quilt, bill to tail in one frame. Easy to forget how small it is until it's beside something else.
The toy resting on the quilt with a cat looking on from the edge of frame. Sixty years old, and apparently still worth investigating.

Quiet Billabong · 1960s Vintage Genuine Fur Platypus Toy

A$105.00



Genuine fur, source unspecified · vinyl bill · plastic hands and feet · plastic eyes · unsigned, no tags · 1960s · 35cm nose to tail · 14cm at widest · no shedding, no gaps in the fur

The bill is the first surprise, smooth vinyl set into real fur, cool and slightly glossy against all that warmth, exactly the contradiction the actual animal is built from.

She is unsigned, no tags anywhere, and turned up alongside the koalas already in the archive, almost certainly made by the same hand or the same small workshop in the same run. Fur pelt souvenirs shaped into native animals were a fixture of the mid-century Australian tourist trade, sold in gift shops to visitors who wanted something that felt like the bush rather than a factory. The construction, plastic eyes and vinyl bill set against genuine fur, places her in the 1960s alongside her companion.

Measured nose to tail she runs a generous 35cm, with a 14cm width at her widest point, built more substantially than most toys from this era. The hands and feet are moulded plastic rather than the koala's hand-cut suede, a small variation between two pieces from what looks like the same maker. The fur itself is in remarkably even condition, no shedding, no gaps, no bald patches, holding its colour and thickness right along the tail.

Material

Genuine fur pelt (source unspecified), vinyl bill, plastic hands and feet, plastic eyes

Care

Do not wash. Wipe the vinyl bill and plastic feet with a soft damp cloth if needed, and keep the fur dry and out of direct sun. Store somewhere she can breathe rather than sealed in plastic.

More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.

Size

Measured flat: Measured nose to tail, she runs 35cm, with a width of 14cm at her widest point. There is no tag and no size marked, this is simply how she was made.

Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.

Condition

Very good to excellent. No smell, no shedding, and no gaps or thin patches anywhere in the fur, notably more even than is typical for a genuine fur piece this old. The vinyl bill and plastic hands and feet show no cracking. This one reads close to archive-ready for a toy of its age and materials.

Our condition lexicon explains the grades we use.

Before it reaches you

Someone loved this before you did, and I try to honour that properly. Each piece is hand washed, or cleaned in the way that the fabric permits, then steamed until it softens and straightens and feels newly attended to. Wherever a button was missing, it has been replaced with a vintage one from my long-kept collection. Wherever a hem had given way, I fix it by hand. By the time it leaves this room it is genuinely clean, pressed, whole, and looked over one final time before I let myself believe it is ready. Not restored. Not made new. Just returned to a state where it can be loved again, by someone who was not there the first time.

Nobody quite believed in her when the first reports came back, a mammal with a bill, laying eggs and nursing young in the same breath, and this little souvenir carries a whisper of that old disbelief. She showed up in the same batch as the koala, which the archive has decided makes them old friends rather than coincidence. Her vinyl bill has never once questioned why it belongs to a fur animal, and neither should you. Some things are only strange until you have held them.