The town is named after the Carbunup River, the word Carbunup is Aboriginal in origin and is thought to mean place of the cormorants or place of a kindly stram or place of the Stinkwood thicket.
The wood of Foetidia mauritiana is one of several woods known as Stinkwood because of its unpleasant smell.
Stinkwood can refer to several unrelated trees that have bad-smelling wood.
Trees here grow up to 30m tall and include Yellowwoods (Afrocarpus falcatus and Podocarpus latifolius), Natal Hard Pear (Olinia radiata), Forest Waterberry (Syzygium gerrardii), Bastard Stinkwood (Ocotea kenyensis), Terblanz Beech (Faurea macnaughtonii) and Green Hazel (Trichocladus grandifloris).