A small to medium sized tree, with a spreading habit and beautiful twisted branches with pale green to cream smooth bark with strips of brown when the bark sheds, shiny leaves. It is slow growing but is long lived, and makes a nice specimen tree, for windbreaks and shelter tree for farms. White flowers in spring and summer. A good honey source and the foliage is used for essential oil production, it has a lovely fresh scent. Generally grows to around 4 to 8 metres tall, but can be taller in its natural range. Very cold tolerant, down to -23º C.

It grows naturally in the colder areas of eastern Australia, mainly in the Snowy Mountains and tablelands from Tasmania to southern Queensland.