Although not particularly fast, it is wonderfully agile, adept at dodging, and difficult to approach on foot. On horseback, however, a person may get quite close. When startled it usually seeks shelter in a hollow log, if available. It has little fear of people at night, is often attracted by a bush camp, and, if not molested by dogs, can be enticed up to a tent door to receive scraps of food. When taken young and treated kindly, it becomes tame and responsive.
Captive males are extremely aggressive toward one another.
The species is polyestrous, with an estrous cycle averaging 34 days. Apparently, breeding occurs over most of the year. In the Dawson Valley of central coastal Queensland, females with pouch young were taken from January to March. Near Killarney in southeastern Queensland, three females with pouch young were caught in June, and local residents reported finding pouch young all year. Females in a captive colony at Canberra had large pouch young in February, July, and August, and smaller ones in July, August, and December.