[3] The area was once coastal heathland and first occupied by John O'Shannessy during the early 1840s, who took a squatting licence to encompass a 40,000-acre (160 km2) block, around suburbs known today as Clarinda, Clayton South, Dingley and Heatherton.

The 6 July 1907 edition of the Brighton Southern Cross newspaper carried an advertisement from a florist named Curtis seeking an employee to work in Clarinda Road, Bald Hills, Clayton.

The area was originally called Bald Hills but because there were many places of the same name, it was changed to Bayview then later Clarinda.

In July the council agreed with an engineer's report recommending Clarinda Road be gravelled for a distance of four chains, and concurred the area should then be 'left alone for a little while'.

[6] Clarinda is now a multicultural suburb with existing communities from the Philippines, India, Greece, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.