Lomatia silaifolia is found across much of eastern Australia east of the Great Dividing Range, on the Blackdown Tableland in central Queensland, then from Gympie in the south-east of the state to the New England area of north-eastern New South Wales, and then also from the Hunter Region to Jervis Bay in central New South Wales. It grows as an understory shrub in open forest on sandstone soils, associated with such trees as red bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera), turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera), blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis), Sydney peppermint (E. piperita), narrow-leaved peppermint (E. radiata), blue-leaved stringybark (E. agglomerata), red stringybark (E. macrorhyncha), grey gum (E. punctata), scribbly gum (E. sclerophylla), smooth-barked apple (Angophora costata) or rose sheoak (Allocasuarina torulosa).