A Voyage to Terra Australia also contained the first textual reference to this species: in the botanical index, Brown writes: "A plant of a very similar habit to Xanthorrhoea, agreeing with it in its caudex and leaves, having, however, a very different inflorescence, was observed abundantly at King George's Sound, but with fructification so decayed and imperfect that I have not been able to determine the structure either of its flower or fruit."

Based on these specimens, Brown published it in its own genus in his Character and description of Kingia, which first appeared as the botanical appendix to Phillip Parker King's 1827 Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia performed between the years 1818 and 1822.

The tree was identified by the state's conservator of forests, Charles Lane Poole, as being high in cellulose and exploited for a fibre industry.

This was separated from the soft core, dried to loosen the adhesion between them, and mechanically split and guillotined to lengths that were baled up for export.

[1] The name of the genus, Kingia, was adopted for the title of the Western Australian Herbarium's publication of their research notes.