Common names include scrub beefwood, white oak and brown silky oak. Other common names in Australia include ironwood, bull-oak or buloke, beefwood, or cassowary tree. The caterpillars feed mostly on acacia (wattle) trees and "Grevillea striata" (beefwood). It is known as Beefwood due to the intense red colour of its heartwood. Beefwood is almost unpopulated, with less than two inhabitants per square kilometer.