It grows to a large, dense shrub with broombrush foliage and profuse pale yellow flowers in late spring.

Melaleuca hamata is a large shrub, sometimes a small tree growing to a height of 5 m (20 ft), with flaking papery bark.

Flowering occurs through spring and early summer and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules forming oval-shaped clusters up to 12 mm (0.5 in) in diameter.

[2][3] This species was first formally described in 1844 by Henry Barron Fielding and Charles Austin Gardner in Sertum Plantarum: or drawings and descriptions of rare and undescribed plants from the author's herbarium .

[4][5] The specific epithet (hamata) is from the Latin word hamus meaning "a hook" or "angle"[6] referring to the curved ends of the leaves.