Rev Joseph Withers arrived in Western Australia with his wife, two sons and niece on 18 January 1864.

John Ramsden Wollaston (1790–1856), who initially migrated privately to be the chaplain for the Western Australian Land Company's failed settlement scheme at Australind.

Finding himself without a parish, together with his sons, he built a small timber chapel on his own land at "Charterhouse" alongside the Preston River, as a condition of his receiving a stipend to act as Colonial Chaplain, and was opened without consecration in September 1842 (it had to wait until 1969 for this).

The suburb contains a diverse mix of residents, with a strong emphasis on trades, retail and services, and 7.2% of its population are of Italian descent.

Bunbury Catholic College (BCC), established in 1973 after the amalgamation of Marist Brother's St Fraancis Xaviers College (situated on the current BCC site and opened in 1954) and the Mercy Sister's St Josephs College (situated at the now Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, originally opened in 1897) and with a student population of about 1000, and the historic St Mark's Anglican Church (1842) are located within the suburb.

[citation needed] At present there are two departures and two arrivals of The Australind at East Bunbury every day of the week.