Mount Canobolas candlebark was first described in 1991 by Lawrie Johnson and Ken Hill who gave it the name Eucalyptus rubida subsp. canobolensis from a specimen collected on Mount Canobolas, and published the description in the journal Telopea. In 1998 John Hunter raised it to species status as E. canobolensis. The specific epithet (canobolensis) refers to the type location. The ending -ensis is a Latin suffix meaning place for or where.