The plain maskray inhabit the continental shelf of northern Australia from the Wellesley Islands in Queensland to the Bonaparte Archipelago in Western Australia , including the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Timor and Arafura Seas . There are unsubstantiated reports that its range extend to southern Papua New Guinea . It is the least common of the several maskray species native to the region . This species is a bottom @-@ dweller that prefer habitats with fine sediment . It have been recorded from between 12 and 62 m ( 39 and 203 ft ) deep , and tend to be found farther away from shore than other maskrays in its range .