Available farmed, it is a marine and estuarine bivalve that lives intertidally to about 3 metres in sheltered bays and estuaries, especially in mangroves, tolerating a wide range of salinity. Australia’s first aquaculture species (farming began in the 1870s), it is now grown from south-eastern Queensland to southern NSW with a small pocket around Albany (WA), though it does occur along the southeast coast as far as Geelong (Victoria).
It is endemic to Australia. Its triangular-shaped shell is reasonably smooth and the meat has a pale edge. Previously known by the Latin name Saccostrea commercialis.