This species is a non-gregarious, foliage-roosting fruit bat. It is predominantly found in tropical and subtropical rainforests, but there are also records from gallery forests, wet sclerophyll forest, complex notophyll vine forest and even Araucarian notophyll vine forest (Schulz 1997, Churchill 2008). It usually roosts solitarily amongst the foliage, in vine tangles or under palm fronds, but small groups of up to three bats roosting together are observed occasionally (Freudmann 2020). 
This species was initially thought to be rare in subtropical rainforests and to have a scattered distribution in their southern range (Milledge 1986), however records have increased since (Schulz 1997, Moran 2007, ALA 2019) and they may be more common than previously thought. In subtropical areas it is associated with rainforest gullies, streamside habitat in coastal rainforests and moist eucalypt forests with prominent rainforest understory (Eyre et al. 1997, Moran 2007, Churchill 2008). This agile, highly manoeuvrable bat is observed throughout all strata from understory, subcanopy and canopy (Richards 1986, Milledge 1987, Schulz 1997). 
It feeds on a variety of native fruit and blossom, and although it is also known to consume some selected cultivated fruit, it depends on forest for roosting (Freudmann 2020). Single young are born from October to December (Churchill 2008), and there is evidence that gestation can be up to 7 months (Freudmann 2020).

The confirmed distributional range of N. robinsoni spans from Moa Island in the Torres Strait, along the east coast of Australia from Cape York into the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales. Previous records of the species outside of Australia (mainland New Guinea [Helgen and Oliver 2004, Hall et al. 2008, Tsang 2016], Trans‐Fly area [Waithman 1979, Leary 2004, Leary and Pennay 2011]) are likely N. robinsoni, but need to be assessed and confirmed as N. robinsoni under the new taxonomy. Specimens from the lower portion of the Strickland river, the Sapi river in the Madang province and Mount Lawes near Port Moresby [Bonaccorso 1998]) also need to be assessed are unlikely to represent N. robinsoni.

The species is recorded from sea level up to 1,200 m.

This species is recorded from a number of protected areas across Queensland and New South Wales. It is listed as Vulnerable under the Biodiversity Conservation Act (2016) at its southernmost part of the range in New South Wales. Since less than 10% of the species' total population is thought to occur within NSW, it has been allocated to the ‘Saving Our Species’ management stream, under which a targeted management strategy has been developed to secure critical populations in NSW long-term and maintain its conservation status. 
The southern range limit is of high conservation value, preliminary data on population structure suggest a genetic bottleneck at the southern range (Freudmann 2020). While refugia modelling for rainforest plants indicates the persistence of suitable habitat in the Wet Tropics, South East Queensland and northern New South Wales until 2070, it also highlights the lack of suitable habitat between the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast (Das et al. 2019). Predicted future habitat loss and increasing isolation triggered by coastal hinterland development and increasing contemporary urbanisation (Spearritt 2009) from the Sunshine Coast to New South Wales illustrate the need for management measures that cross political boundaries. 
Additional research on the species population status and trends, ecology, and threats are needed throughout the species range. Special attention is needed to clarify the species taxonomy and presence outside of Australia.