[2][3][4][5][6][7] The name Eucalyptus dumosa was mentioned in John Oxley's Journals of two expeditions into the interior of New South Wales published in 1820.

[9] The specific epithet (dumosa) is a Latin word meaning "bushy",[10] referring to the habit of the plant.

[4] White mallee is found in the relatively dry country of South Australia from the northern Flinders Ranges and Murray Mallee eastwards to Dubbo in central western New South Wales and Swan Hill in north western Victoria.

[12] It is used as a component of mass plantings along with other mallee species on wide roadside verges as a screen, wind-break, erosion control or a shade tree.

Indigenous Australians use the tree as a source of food, drink, medicines and to make containers and implements.

[13] The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia’ records that common names included "Bastard Box" and "Coolibah" and that "These Eucalypts [sic.

], amongst others, yield water from their roots...", and "a kind of manna called Lerp or Larp by the aboriginals [sic.].