The shrub or tree typically grows to a height of 2 to 5 metres (6.6 to 16.4 ft) and has a straggly to willowy habit.

The dull black seeds within are arranged obliquely to transversely and have an elliptic shape with a length of around 4 to 5 mm (0.16 to 0.20 in).

[1] The species was first formally described by the botanist George Bentham in 1848 as part of Thomas Mitchell's work Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia.

It was reclassified as Racosperma unciferum by Leslie Pedley in 1987 then transferred back to genus Acacia in 2001.

[2] It is endemic only in a small area in Queensland from the White Mountains to Torrens Creek and the headwaters of the Nogoa River where it is found on plains and hills where it grows in sandy soils over and around sandstone as a part of open forest or woodland communities composed of Angophora and Eucalyptus species.