[4] The first description of the species was published in 1838 by John Edward Gray, in a review of material at the British Museum of Natural History.

When providing a description in Furred Animals of Australia, Ellis Troughton suggested that the specimen examined by Gray was obtained at Camden, a property owned by John Macarthur.

Gregorin and Cirranello found that these two species formed a clade distinct from other Tadarida, differing in eight morphological characters.

[11] This species has a wingtip shaped similarly to the crescent form found on fast-flying birds and on the caudal fins of fast-swimming fish.

This bat's wings are considered as having low camber sections with faired humerus and radius bones, typical leading-edge flaps and surface disjunctions and protuberances.

[14][6] Research by Herr and Klomp into the white-striped free-tailed bat's calls showed that vocalisation changed at different stages of flight.

[17] In Western Australia this species is restricted south of the 20°S latitude during the breeding season, the austral spring and summer, then extending north in the winter.

[18][19] This species can be found in most habitats from closed forest to open flood plain, and occurs in urban areas, in regions across temperate and subtropical Australia.

In the Greater Brisbane Region of South East Queensland the white-striped free-tail bat uses over-mature to dead eucalypt species with large tree diameters (>89 cm) as roost habitats.

[21][22] Although single bats spend most of their daytime in separate day-roosts, they spent an average of one day in every eleven within the communal roost.

[23] This bat species is a highly colonial tree-dweller, so that large internal hallows are an important feature in selecting suitable maternity roost sites as population numbers increase during parturition.

report that the bat will also scurry around on the ground chasing ground-dwelling insects such as beetles, bugs, grasshoppers and ants.

They are able to do this by folding their wings away neatly so that their forearms are free, retracting their tail membrane and scampering around on their thumbs and hind feet.

Males do not have the ability to store sperm in their vesicular follicles during the winter period, therefore breeding commences late in August.