Desert Bandicoots inhabited sandy and stony deserts with sandplains and dunes vegetated with Triodia spp. hummock grasses and tussock grass flats. They occurred in the same habitat as the Golden Bandicoot Isoodon auratus. They were nocturnal and rested during the day in a grass-lined nest in a shallow depression in a scape or short burrow under litter, hummock grass or a shrub. The diet included termites and ants, especially honey-pot ants, and beetle larvae, but like other bandicoots they were probably omnivorous.

The Desert Bandicoot was widespread in the Great Sandy, Gibson and Tanami Deserts, as well as in the central ranges region (Burbidge et al. 1988, Johnson and Southgate 1990, Woinarski et al. 2007). Warburton and Travouillon (2016) reported subfossils from near Tandou and Nitchie Lakes in western New South Wales, and Gordon (2023) reported a subfossil site north west of Adelaide, extending its former range significantly south and south east.

There are no conservation measures pertaining to this species as it is Extinct.

It is listed as Extinct under Australian, Western Australian, South Australian, and Northern Territory law.