The Australian green tree frog is well-known to residents of northeastern Australia. It's well-suited to living near human dwellings and is often found resting in sinks and toilets, and catching insects on window panes. It's especially drawn to gutters, cisterns and downspouts, the latter two especially during the mating season as they help amplify the frog's mating call. In the wild, it's typically found in forest canopy alongside still waters, such as lakes and ponds.

The green tree frog is an excellent climber. It has a large disc at the tip of each toe that provides a suction-like grip on windows and smooth tree trunks. It has scant webbing between its front toes, but is almost fully-webbed between its hind toes. Most have green skin, but brown is not uncommon; skin color ultimately depends on ambient temperature and the color of the frog's environment.

It sleeps during the day in cool, dark places and hunts at night for insects, spiders and even small vertebrates. It catches smaller animals with its sticky tongue, but for larger animals it pounces, grabs and shoves them into its mouth.

Like all frogs, it has lungs but is also able to breathe through its skin. Secretions help keep the skin moist, allowing for greater oxygen absorption. However, constant moisture leaves the skin prone to infection, so the secretions contain peptides that help fight pathogens. The green tree frog's peptides contain antiviral properties that have been shown to destroy HIV without harming healthy T-cells, so its skin secretions are being studied in hopes of finding an AIDS cure.

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