How did the town of Australind, West Australia, get its name?

Australind got its name by combining “Australia” and “India.” The name reflected an 1840s plan to establish a settlement whose climate and location might support horse breeding for the British Indian Army.

The Western Australian Land Company purchased about 103,000 acres in 1840 and planned an English-style town on Leschenault Inlet. Marshall Waller Clifton led approximately 440 settlers who arrived in 1841, but the scheme struggled because of poor soils, dry summers, and excessive winter wetness.

The settlement never developed as grandly as its promoters intended. The company collapsed, much of the land returned to Crown control, and the original plans were officially abandoned in 1875. Australind nevertheless survived as a small local centre and later grew as part of the expanding Bunbury region.

The name is sometimes mistaken for an Aboriginal place-name or confused with the Transwa Australind train. The train was named after the town, not the other way around.