Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat

The name of the fat-arsed wombat (the battler's prince) on the television show The Dream (with hosts Roy and HG), which ran on Australian television during the Olympic Games in 2000. Fatso became more loved by the general public than the official mascots, Syd, Millie and Olly, causing great embarrassment to the Australian Olympic Committee.

A stuffed toy wombat made popular by Roy and HG during the 2000 Olympics on their televised roundup of the day's events, "The Dream".

"The Battlers Prince" enjoyed immediate popularity and was the cause of much controversy with the games organizers, SOCOG, when Australian swimmer Michael Klim was seen holding Fatso when he received one of his gold medals. The view of SOCOG was that the official games mascots should have been used, and that Fatso infringed upon sponsorship arrangements.

Regardless, at the conclusion of the Olympics fatso was auctioned to raise money for Charity "Olympic Aid" and was in fact purchased by Kerry Stokes, the chairman of the Channel 7 network which had broadcasting rights for the games. The final figure was somewhere in the vicinity of $AU70,000 - testament to the popularity of The Dream, Roy and HG and Fatso himself.

This popular TV character was created by Paul Newell, who used to work for Disney. It's final auction bid was $80,450, which went towards helping refugee children.

Info from: http://www.strategicresources.com.au/fatso.html

Fatso the wombat was originally seen on Channel 7's mediocre drama serial A Country Practice. He was kept as a pet, which is quite strange, as that is illegal. The town vet, who surely would know this, often visited the house in which he resided, but throughout the show the whole issue was ignored.
Fatso arguably had far more personality as the Battler's Prince, however.