On early sailing ships, rats often nested down in the bilges of the vessels - and could be found scurrying around a ship's galley where food was prepared. They also nibbled on passengers' belongings, as recorded by Frederick Edelsten in the diary of his 1867 voyage to Adelaide on the clipper ship City of Adelaide:

'A grand rat hunt tonight in the Doctor's cabin. We killed two after some scrummaging, and found that they had begun to eat his shirts ... '.

Join us at Dock 2 to bolt, hammer, glue, solder and decorate your own battery-powered, bilge-nesting stowaway, then 'scurry' it along our three-lane five-metre test track. How fast can your rat scurry? Let's measure it!

Contact the host of Build your Bilge Rat Racer!