The evergreen, leathery and ascending phyllodes have a narrowly elliptic or oblong-elliptic shape and are quite straight with a length of 5 to 10 cm (2.0 to 3.9 in) and a width of 5 to 25 mm (0.20 to 0.98 in) and have many closely parallel, obscure nerves where one to three are more prominent than the others.

[1] It blooms between August and November producing inflorescences that occur in groups of three to five found on an axillary axis with a length of 1 to 6 mm (0.039 to 0.236 in) and has spherical flower-heads with a diameter of 4 to 6 mm (0.16 to 0.24 in) containing 30 to 50 densely packed bright yellow flowers.

[2] The species was first formally described by the botanist Leslie Pedley in 1978 as a part of the work A revision of Acacia Mill.

[3] The specific epithet honours Ronald Melville who was once a botanist at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens.

[1] It dominates the endangered Acacia melvillei shrubland in the Riverina and Murray-Darling Depression bioregions in New South Wales where it occurs in pure stands or along with less abundant tall shrubs or trees including Acacia loderi, Alectryon oleifolius, Casuarina pauper and Myoporum platycarpum.