The name Pinkawillinie itself has had a number of apocryphal attributions, however the most commonly accepted being a translated aboriginal word meaning "Place of the many rabbit-footed bandicoot burrows".

However, the limiting factor for early settlers was the availability of water, and allocations were generally preferentially selected around rare rocky outcrops or uplands which could afford some opportunities for increased runoff into earthen dams.

[12] Geomorphologically Pinkawillinie is dominated by generally flat calcreted plains with longitudinal dunes increasing in frequency to the south west toward the Corrobinnie Depression.

Low rises of Archaean Sleaford Complex bedrock of the Gawler Craton and derivative laterite can also be found, with most of the land within the hundred given over to cereal cultivation and livestock grazing.

The Pinkawillinie Conservation Park occupies the south western corner of the original hundred, but due to the nature of the deep white sand filling the Corrobinnie Depression, this land was deemed unsuitable for agriculture and hence was incorporated into the park in 1970, with the remainder of the unallocated crown land to the west of the Buckleboo district being added in 1983.