noun A kind of Australian scrubland covered in short, dense eucalyptus trees.
- Large areas of mallee shrublands are now either reserved specifically for biodiversity conservation or else managed sympathetically. Fire is a prominent feature of the semi-arid lands in general and the mallee shrublands in particular.
— Ross A. Bradstock, Fire Regimes and Biodiversity in Semi-arid Mallee Ecosystems (2002)
noun Any part of Australia's semi-desert where this kind of scrub is the main plant cover.
- It made no difference that he had also invented several ploughs and a device for grubbing Mallee country or that people had journeyed all the way from Melbourne to inspect them.
— Peter Carey (1985)
noun A small eucalyptus tree that grows in thick, low scrub, especially in parts of Australia.
- It was almost dark by the time we reached a small rocky hill, its boulders bursting with the white plumes of spinifex in flower, and a black fuzz of leafless mallee bush.
— Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines (1987)
