Two mice-like marsupials are settling into their new home at a tourist centre in a small Queensland outback town.

Dunnarts are found in north-west Queensland and the town of Julia Creek has its own variety, the endangered Julia Creek dunnart.

But with only one left in captivity, the McKinlay Shire Council said it had struggled to source any for their tourist centre.

"We had a Julia Creek dunnart named Digby on display up until the end of September last year and unfortunately he passed away," McKinlay Mayor Belinda Murphy said.

To keep the tourists coming the council instead changed its licence and has now put two fat-tailed dunnarts, on loan from the University of Queensland, out on display.

"The fat-tailed dunnart are a different variety to the Julia Creek, but they still are found in our north-western area and there are lots of similarities between them, so we've been really lucky to be able to have those become part of our centre," Cr Murphy said.

Old Julia Creek dunnart Digby died in 2013. ( ABC News: Emma Cillekens )

The two male dunnarts arrived in town last week.

Tourism officer Katrina Harling said the animals were only a few months old but said she had already noticed the difference from the Julia Creek variety.

"They're smaller, they are a lighter grey in colour. They have distinct white markings especially behind the ears and around the head and they have a very fat tail, hence the name the fat-tailed dunnart," she said.

"They're much easier. They are not as fussy eaters ... [dunnarts] are related to the Tasmanian devil, and these fellas are definitely placid little fellas."

Despite their size the marsupials can be tricky to look after.

"We only put one dunnart out on display at a time. You can't have two of them together because they fight," Ms Harling said.

With the tourist season kicking off for the year the animals have arrived just in time to provide visitors with a unique and educational experience.

"We still want to provide that tangible platform, that physical experience for the public and tourists coming through and keep talking about conserving the natural habitat and the threat to species like the Julia Creek dunnarts," Cr Murphy said.

McKinlay Shire Council hopes to begin breeding program

The McKinlay Shire Council is now hoping population surveys will lead to a captive breeding program of the Julia Creek dunnarts - allowing the council to eventually have two of their own.

Native Wildlife Teaching and Research Facility manager Trish O'Hara from the University of Queensland will be in the region in July to begin the surveys.

"Depending on the results of those surveys [we can establish] if a captive breeding program would be warranted," she said.

"If the survey found there were sufficient numbers of animals existing in the wild, the Government wouldn't deem it necessary to establish a captive breeding colony and wild animals really should be in the wild, so it would make more sense to preserve that in their habitat.

"If the numbers were really low we might be able to put a case forward to re-establish a captive breeding colony."

The surveys could take some time with the small creatures spread out across a large area, with some found near Cloncurry, more than 100 kilometres away from Julia Creek.

"The Julia Creek dunnart can be quite difficult to catch so we need to have the surveys and traps set in a number of different locations and obviously being such a big area that it can be distributed in and quite isolated it could take potentially a number of years to survey all of that area," Ms O'Hara said.