This small rat lives in forests of eastern Australia. Coat color varies with age; it has pale feet and a long, mosaic-patterned tail.
Its coat ranges from gray-brown to russet, with a white to cream underside and light fawn-colored feet. The tail is about as long as the head and body, with mosaic-like scales. Young animals can be uniformly light gray.
It is scansorial, climbing in vegetation, and mainly uses forest habitats. The account reports that its habitat differs from that of its grassland relative, M. burtoni.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.