Eriostemon banksii A. Cunn. ex Endl., currently recognised as a subspecies of E. australasius Pers., is reinstated at specific level. Characters that distinguish it from E. australasius include: distinctly 5-nerved leaves, non-imbricate bracteoles, beaked fruit, anthers that lack a white apiculum and white petals. A preliminary investigation of leaf essential oils in E. banksii and E. australasius is also presented. Extracts of E. banksii contained both cis and trans-methyl-4-isoprenoxycinnamate, which were absent in E. australasius. Extracts of E. banksii contained proportionally more b-elemene (7.2–8.1%), b-caryophyllene (7.7–8.4%) and an unknown sesquiterpene hydrocarbon (12.3–15.1%), and proportionally less a-pinene (2.8–8.3%), b-pinene (0.2–0.8%) and limonene (0.4–0.5%) when compared with E. australasius (0.3–0.4%, 0.6%; 0.1%, 9.5–18.0%, 7.4–15.2%, and 1.2–7.8% respectively).