It is found on coastal areas and sub-coastal ranges from Newcastle in New South Wales northwards to west of Daintree in Queensland, mainly on flat land and lower slopes, where it is the dominant tree of wet forests and on the margins of rainforests.

[4][7][8] The Sydney blue gum (E. saligna) is very similar in appearance and overlaps E. grandis in the southern part of its range, but has narrower leaves and more bell-shaped gumnuts with protruding valves.

[2] It has been classified in the subgenus Symphyomyrtus, Section Latoangulatae, Series Transversae (eastern blue gums) by Brooker and Kleinig.

Flooded gum is an attractive, straight-trunked tree much in demand outside Australia for timber and pulp, and extensive plantations exist in South Africa and Brazil.

Clones of Eucalyptus grandis have been selected and bred on the basis of unpalatability to the brown Christmas beetle (Anoplognathus chloropyrus) to minimise damage to plantations.

[13] Eucalyptus grandis has been grown successfully in plantations in wetter areas of Sri Lanka, particularly in the Badulla and Nuwara Eliya Districts.

[14] Many parameters of climate and soil are similar to eastern Australia, and it has grown well on plains as well as hills previously used for growing tea.

At the onset of flowering each year an extraordinarily large number of colonies move into these plantations where thousands are decoyed into hives by beekeepers.