Corymbia aspera grows in low, open woodland on hills, ridges and plateaus as well as on floodplains in red sand, alluvium and skeletal soils. Its range extends from the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia east through the Roper and McArthur River catchments in the Northern Territory and into Queensland as far east as the Selwyn Range to the south east of Cloncurry.