Morwong was first used as a name for a genus in 1957 when the Australian ichthyologist Gilbert Percy Whitley designated Cheilodactylus fuscus as its type species by monotypy.

[1] The genus name is the name in Australian English, the origins of which are unknown, for a number of similar fish species, mostly in the families Cheilodactylidae and Latridae.

[3][4][5] Genetic and morphological analyses have also strongly suggested that only two southern African species in Cheilodactylus, C. fasciatus and C. pixi, make up a monophyletic clade and that all the other “morwongs” were closer to the Latridae.

Compared to Goniistius Morwong has a shallower head and a shorter 4th dorsal fin spine while compared to Chirodactylus they have a greater number of scales along the lateral line, 59–66 as opposed to 46–56, and a higher number of soft rays in the dorsal fin, 30–35 as opposed to 22–31.

[6] Morwong fishes are found in the southwestern Pacific Ocean in southeastern Australia, the Tasman Sea and northern New Zealand.