Forked antennules between the larger antennae; this allies the species with the tropical rock lobsters, rather than with the southern rock lobsters, which have antennules ending in fine filaments and a knob. The western rock lobster is the most valuable fishery species in Australia, with a total annual catch valued at more than $300 million. Juvenile rock lobsters drift for 9–11 months many hundreds of kilometres offshore among Indian Ocean plankton. They then move shoreward and settle in great abundance on shallow coastal reefs (0–20 m depth), where they forage at night among seaweeds and on adjacent seagrass habitats. Western rock lobsters migrate offshore into deeper water (30–150 m depth) at about five years of age and remain there for up to 20 years, spawning once or twice each year.

• Max Size: 20 cm
• Sea Temperature Range: 18.5°C-23.3°C
• Depth: 0-180m
• Habitat: Rocky Reef, Seagrass

• IUCN Threat Status: Least Concern
• Occurrence: Common (42% of sites)
  Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
• Abundance: Few (3 per transect)
  Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.