 In 1985, two volunteer field collectors for The Banksia Atlas project, John and Lalage Falconer of Esperance, became convinced that there were three Banksia species rather than two at Point Culver. Returning to the locality on 9 January 1986, they collected leaves and old flowers of what they thought was an undescribed species. The specimens did indeed suggest that a new species had been discovered, but they were not sufficient for formal publication. Early in May the following year, John Falconer drove over 2000 kilometres on unsealed tracks from Warburton to Point Culver and back again, in order to collect fresh flowers and fruit of the purported new species. Alex George then began preparing a formal description of the species. During his research, he discovered that Nelson's Toolinna Cove specimen was also referable to the undescribed species. In the absence of any genuine B. media specimens from Toolinna Cova, George inferred that only B. epica occurred there, and that Eyre must have sighted B. epica in 1841. In 1988, he published a formal description of the species, naming it Banksia epica in reference to the two "epic" journeys of Eyre and Falconer. Thus the species' full name is Banksia epica A.S.George. It was later established that both B. epica and B. media occur at Toolinna Cove.
