 Charleston is very close to the source of the River Onkaparinga.The town was laid out in 1857 by Charles Dunn (1796–1881), a brother of the prominent miller John Dunn, in a subdivision of section 5197, Hundred of Onkaparinga, and may have been originally named "Charlestown", but the current spelling has always been more common in newspaper reports

Most of the local businesses are on the Onkaparinga Valley Road, while the largest number of houses are on Newman Road.Charleston is served by a community postal agency called the Bookpost which is also a bookshop, internet cafe and General Store.