The ghost bat was once widely distributed throughout Australia, and became restricted to a sparser population across northern regions. The species was recorded three more times in the twenty years that followed its discovery, two at Alice Springs and one in the Pilbrara. Attempts to survey the distribution range began in 1961, when its earlier status as a relict and rare species was revised to indicate it was more widespread and disappearing in regions where it was known within living memory; Hedley Finlayson interviewed Pitjanjarra elders (Anangu people) who knew of the species in the Musgrave, Mann and Tomkinson Ranges and not seen for forty years.