It has smooth bark, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds usually arranged in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped, conical or hemispherical fruit.Eucalyptus bancroftii is a tree growing to 30 metres (100 ft) high, with smooth bark which is a patchy grey, salmon and orange, which sheds in large plates.

[5] Bancroft's red gum was first formally described in 1904 by Joseph Maiden who gave it the name Eucalyptus tereticornis var.

[6][7] In 1917, Maiden raised the variety to species status as E. bancroftii, publishing the change in A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus.

[8] Maiden noted that he collected the type specimen "from Honeysuckle Flat, about 9 miles south of Port Macquarie, N.S.W., on serpentine country bearing stunted vegetation" in July, 1895.

[9] Eucalyptus bancroftii occurs from Maitland and Port Macquarie in New South Wales north to the Tin Can Bay - Boonooroo area in Queensland.