[2][3][4][5][6] Eucalyptus socialis was first formally described by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel in 1856 in the journal Nederlandsch Kruidkundig Archief, from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller.

[9] In 2005, Dean Nicolle described four subspecies of E. socialis and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at December 2019: E. socialis and E. gillii have undergone extensive hybridisation in parts of the Barrier Range of New South Wales.

[18] In Western Australia it is found on calcareous flats and rocky scree slopes in the Pilbara and Goldfields-Esperance regions where it grows in red-grey loam over limestone.

[21] In New South Wales it is found west from Condoblin with a sporadic distribution from Wilcannia.

In these areas it is found in mallee shrubland communities on red aeolian sands.

[18] Indigenous Australians used the tree for making bowls and medicines from the leaves, shields and spears from the bark and obtained water from roots.