Available wild-caught, it is a marine fish found around the entire Australian coast except the Gulf of Carpentaria.
It is caught mainly in temperate waters from southern Queensland to southern WA, including Tasmania, as a bycatch of Jack Mackerel (a member of the Trevally family, despite its name), with which it often schools, as well as off south-eastern Australia and as a targeted species of purse seine fishing in NSW. It is used as both live and dead bait in domestic Tuna fisheries.
The juvenile fish inhabit inshore waters while the adults can be found at depths of up to 200m over the continental shelf.