The fruit body is a mushroom with a cap atop a central stem. The cap is convex to flat, with a slight central hump, slimy (at least when fresh), white but sometimes with brownish tints and up to 10 centimetres in diameter. The gills are buff coloured. The stem (to 8 centimetres long and 2 in diameter) is white, possibly with lilac tints and sticky when fresh.
There is a cobwebby partial veil (or cortina) which leaves traces as fibrillose remnants on the stem, and these are usually rusty brown because of trapped spores.
The mushrooms smell of curry or fenugreek.
Spore print: rusty brown.
The fruit bodies are found on the ground in native forests.
Cortinarius austroalbidus is listed in the following regions:
Canberra & Southern Tablelands | South Coast