diff --git a/django/bin/django-admin.py b/django/bin/django-admin.py
index 31af89dae5d..0d021ba172b 100755
--- a/django/bin/django-admin.py
+++ b/django/bin/django-admin.py
@@ -53,11 +53,15 @@ def main():
     parser = DjangoOptionParser(get_usage())
     parser.add_option('--settings',
         help='Python path to settings module, e.g. "myproject.settings.main". If this isn\'t provided, the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable will be used.')
+    parser.add_option('--pythonpath',
+        help='Lets you manually add a directory the Python path, e.g. "/home/djangoprojects/myproject".')
     options, args = parser.parse_args()
 
     # Take care of options.
     if options.settings:
         os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = options.settings
+    if options.pythonpath:
+        sys.path.insert(0, options.pythonpath)
 
     # Run the appropriate action. Unfortunately, optparse can't handle
     # positional arguments, so this has to parse/validate them.
diff --git a/docs/django-admin.txt b/docs/django-admin.txt
index b4b07f4f120..188dd4295c9 100644
--- a/docs/django-admin.txt
+++ b/docs/django-admin.txt
@@ -193,6 +193,16 @@ Explicitly specifies the settings module to use. The settings module should be
 in Python path syntax, e.g. "myproject.settings.main". If this isn't provided,
 ``django-admin.py`` will use the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable.
 
+--pythonpath
+============
+
+Example usage::
+
+    django-admin.py init --pythonpath='/home/djangoprojects/myproject'
+
+Adds the given filesystem path to the Python path. If this isn't provided,
+``django-admin.py`` will use the ``PYTHONPATH`` environment variable.
+
 --help
 ======