We present the properties of the first 250 µm blind sample of nearby galaxies ( 15 < D < 46 { Mpc } ) containing 42 objects from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey ( H -ATLAS ) . Herschel ’ s sensitivity probes the faint end of the dust luminosity function for the first time , spanning a range of stellar mass ( 7.4 < { M _ { \star } } < 11.3 { log _ { 10 } M _ { \odot } } ) , star formation activity ( -11.8 < { \it SSFR } < -8.9 { log _ { 10 } yr ^ { -1 } } ) , gas fraction ( 3–96 per cent ) , and colour ( 0.6 < FUV- K _ { S } < 7.0 mag ) .
The median cold dust temperature is 14.6 K , colder than in the Herschel Reference Survey ( 18.5 K ) and Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue ( 17.7 K ) .
The mean dust-to-stellar mass ratio in our sample is higher than these surveys by factors of 3.7 and 1.8 , with a dust mass volume density of ( 3.7 \pm 0.7 ) \times 10 ^ { 5 } { M _ { \odot } Mpc ^ { -3 } } .
Counter-intuitively , we find that the more dust rich a galaxy , the lower its UV attenuation .
Over half of our dust-selected sample are very blue in FUV- K _ { S } colour , with irregular and/or highly flocculent morphology ; these galaxies account for only 6 per cent of the sample ’ s stellar mass but contain over 35 per cent of the dust mass .
They are the most actively star forming galaxies in the sample , with the highest gas fractions and lowest UV attenuation .
They also appear to be in an early stage of converting their gas into stars , providing valuable insights into the chemical evolution of young galaxies .