As a member of the sub-family Pleurodira this species is a side-necked turtle and also a snake-necked strike and gape predator.

Chelodina rugosa tends to hide under and between rocks and logs where possible or buries itself in the mud to act as an ambush predator to fish, amphibian, and invertebrate prey.

Initially described in 1841 by John Edward Gray[8] it was later synonymised (as senior synonym) with Chelodina colliei[9] and for many years northern and western Australia was believed to have a single species.

[13] More recently using mitagenomics of the types it was found that the specimen assumed to be the holotype of Chelodina oblonga, in all likelihood, could not be.

[16] Nests are excavated in soft substrate in billabongs and other ephemeral bodies of slow-moving fresh water toward the end of the wet season (austral summer, Dec-April).

Exhibiting a reproductive strategy almost unique among reptiles, embryos of C. rugosa can survive at least 12 weeks of submersion.