Springs to mind she's in town, in Australia (5)
I believe the answer is:
alice
'town in australia' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'springs to mind she's in' is the wordplay.
'springs to mind' becomes 'c' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'she' becomes 'Alie'.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'c' placed into 'alie' is 'ALICE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alice that I've seen before include "Girl who famously explored Wonderland" , "band" , "Wonderland heroine" , "She fell down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world" , "Movement" .)