Its natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, intermittent rivers, freshwater marshes, rocky areas, granite outcrops, arable land, pastureland, open excavations, and canals and ditches.

Males excavate burrows up to 1 m deep in sandy substrates surrounding ephemeral waterbodies, and commence calling in autumn (March/April).

Some clutches of eggs have been found to be infested by the larvae of a dipteran fly Aphiura breviceps and females of this fly may reside in the burrows of this frog where they are presumed to feed on the outer capsules of the eggs.

[3] Genetic studies have shown that there is good dispersal across the range of this species, however high levels of inbreeding were detected between some populations in the central wheatbelt region of WA, indicating that habitat fragmentation and salinity may be restricting gene flow.

[6] That study also found that the survival rates of juvenile frogs was the most important factor in the persistence of populations and that populations may survive well even under a drying climate, if breeding ponds can be managed to not dry out too quickly.