The tree form has rough, fibrous, compact and dark grey-brown to black bark on the trunk.

[3][4][5][6] Eucalyptus smithii was first formally described in 1899 by Richard Thomas Baker in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, from specimens collected by William Bäuerlen near Braidwood.

[7][8] The specific epithet (smithii) honours academic chemist Henry George Smith (1852 - 1954), for his pioneering work on essential oils of eucalypts and other Australian flora.

[3][8][9] Gully gum grows in shallow soils on sloping sites on the coast and tablelands south from Yerranderie in New South Wales to eastern Victoria where it occurs as a rough-barked tree in well-watered valleys or as a smooth-barked mallee on mountains.

[1] The species is widely grown in southern Africa, and its leaves are used for the production of distilled eucalyptus oil.