Harry Burrell

Henry James Burrell was born at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, the fourth son of Douglas and Sarah Rose Burrell (née Stacey). He had some schooling but had an itinerant lifestyle during which he spent some years as a vaudeville comedian. In 1901 he married Susan Emily Naegueli, a 42-year-old divorcee, and settled at Caermarthen station, Manilla, New South Wales, which was home to Susan\'s parents.\n', '

He set up a small native zoo and became interested in the platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, which he had been told could not be kept in captivity. He spent much of his time studying the platypus on the rivers surrounding the station: the Namoi, Manilla and Macdonald. He captured some specimens and managed to keep them alive in a portable artificial habitat of his own devising, which he christened a "platypusary". He made the first exhibition of the platypus at the Moore Park Zoological Garde…