It is native to a large area in the Pilbara and northern Goldfields regions of Western Australia where its distribution is scattered and its range extends from around north west of Wiluna in the south then eastwards into the Gibson Desert. In the north it is found on Balfour Downs and Ethel Creek Stations as well as in the Hamersley Range. The species shares much of the range of Acacia thoma. It is often situated on gently undulating plains and stony hardpan plains with skeletal shallow red-brown loamy soils mixed with ironstone pebbles and cobbles as a part of open Mulga woodland communities, sometimes with a spinifex understorey.