The Piccabeen Palm grows in the wet subtropics on the sides of Mt Warning Volcano in northern NSW and over the border in Queensland's Lamington National Park, for example. It seeks a good water supply so ravines and grottos are well populated. Its fronds do not create a nesting environment for insects or macrofauna like rodents, so are a tolerable tree for urban environments. Originally in Australia from the landbridge created 45,000 years ago by the receding ocean levels during the last glacial, the probable 'native' environment in prehistory was Indonesia.