The townsite of Roelands is located in the southwest agricultural region, 166 kilometres south of Perth and 20 kilometres east of Bunbury. It is named after a property of the same name granted to the Colony's first Surveyor General in 1830, John Septimus Roe. In 1893 when the railway line from Pinjarra to Picton Junction was opened, a railway station was established at Roelands, but named Collie, after the nearby Collie River. It was changed to Roelands in 1899, because it was confused with the new town in the coalfields (now Collie). In 1909 a school was established at Roelands, and in 1916 a private subdivision was undertaken surrounding the schoolsite. In 1963 the subdivision was gazetted a townsite at the request of the Shire of Harvey.