The insect habitually hunts fairly slowly, patrolling up and down like other hawkers, with short bursts at high speed.

[10][11] The Australian emperor is widespread and common on larger bodies of water with tall vegetation on the banks.

[8] The Australian emperor is notable as the dragonfly in which motion camouflage was studied by Mizutani et al.: males of Anax papuensis are fiercely territorial, and approach and attack rivals, the males choose a flight path that keeps their image as seen by the target still with respect to a landmark point.

The attacking dragonfly thus looms larger in the target's eyes, but otherwise does not seem to move until it is very close.

In case of intrusion of another individual, he will drive it away by engaging in a series of noisy air battles.