Where "Quoll" Comes From
"Quoll" comes from Guugu Yimithirr, the language of the Guugu Yimithirr people around present-day Cooktown, Queensland — the same language that gave English "kangaroo." The original word was "dhigul," recorded by the naturalist Joseph Banks as "je-quoll" in his journal on 26 August 1770, during Cook's Endeavour voyage, describing an animal "about the size and something like a polecat, of a light brown spotted with white."
After that first recording, the word almost vanished from use for roughly 150 years, with "native cat" becoming the everyday English name instead. "Quoll" has since been revived and is now the standard name for the four Australian species of the genus Dasyurus — spotted-coated, cat-sized marsupial carnivores found from the eastern forests to the Top End.
Source: Wikipedia — "Quoll"
"A quoll darted across the verandah at dusk, chasing something in the dark."
How Aussies Actually Use It
Photo by Charles J. Sharp, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
It refers to the real animal — a spotted, cat-sized marsupial hunter, not a rodent or feral cat despite the old "native cat" nickname.
For much of the 20th century Australians said "native cat" instead; "quoll" only became the everyday name again in recent decades, as the older Aboriginal word was reclaimed.
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