Olearia minor is a small shrub to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) high, branchlets and leaf underside thickly covered with whitish, cottony hairs.

The 4-5 bracts are conical shaped, 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) long, arranged in rows, smooth near the base, densely or sparingly covered with short, soft hairs near the either rounded or pointed apex.

The dry, one-seeded fruit are narrowly oval shaped, about 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) long, slightly ribbed, smooth or with dense, silky, flattened hairs.

[6][7] This species grows in mallee or open scrubland on loam or yellow brown sand or rocky slopes mostly around Balranald district, Dubbo and the Budawang Range in New South Wales.

In Victoria a scattered distribution on loamy soils with mallee in the north-west near Bambill to near the Little Desert and dry forest in the northern Brisbane Ranges and Werribbee Gorge.