Capel River

For the eponymous locality, see Capel River, Western Australia.

Capel River
Bridge over the Capel River at Capel
Map
Location
CountryAustralia
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationJunction of Capel River North and Capel River South
 • elevation76 metres (249 ft)[1]
Mouth 
 • location
Geographe Bay
 • elevation
sea level
Length32 kilometres (20 mi)[2]
Basin size653 square kilometres (252 sq mi)[3]

The Capel River is a river in the South West region of Western Australia that rises in the Darling Range east of Mullalyup, and flows into the Indian Ocean at Peppermint Grove Beach.

The Capel River is the largest in the Geographe catchment. It rises at the edge of the Darling Scarp and flows in a north-westerly direction across the northern part of the Blackwood plateau to the confluence of the Capel River North and Capel River South, near Goodwood.

The original inhabitants of the Capel basin were the Noongar Aboriginal people of the Wardandi dialect group. They called the river Coolingup.[4] The river is said to have formed a border between different clans. Various stone artifacts were found along the river. The lower reaches of the Capel were of cultural importance for the Wardandi because they buried their dead there. A slaughter of the Wardandi occurred in 1841, by John Bussell and a number of settlers, following the murder of George Layman by the Wardandi elder Gaywal. The Wardandi later avoided the place.[5]

The river was given its English name after Capel Carter Brockman (1839–1924),[6] daughter of John Bussell (1803–1875),[7] who was named after a Miss Capel Carter, a cousin of the Bussells in England with whom the Bussell family members corresponded.

The river crosses the Bussell Highway near Capel.

An artificial river mouth was cut through the sand dunes adjacent to the Stirling Wetlands in 1880 to allow it to flow directly into Geographe Bay.[8]

The Capel river has six tributaries: Capel River North, Capel River South, Gynudup Brook, Camp Gully, Layman Gully and Maidenhair Gully.

The inaugural 2009 Ranger Outdoors Capel Descent[9] was held in June 2009, consisting of a 15-kilometre (9 mi) part down river, part open ocean paddle along the Capel River and Geographe Bay.

  1. ^ "Bonzle Digital Atlas - Map of Capel River, WA". 2008. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  2. ^ "History of river names – C". Western Australian Land Information Authority. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  3. ^ "Capel River Action Plan". 2007. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 26 September 2007.
  4. ^ "Capel". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 February 2004. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  5. ^ "Capel River Action Plan 1999" (PDF). Rgw.dwer.wa.gov.au. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  6. ^ 'Brockman, Capel Carter (1839–1924)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 7 April 2013.
  7. ^ Freda Vines Carmody (1966) 'Bussell, John Garrett (1803–1875)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP)
  8. ^ "Regional Saltwatch Snapshot pages". 2007. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. Retrieved 26 September 2007.
  9. ^ "Capel Descent". Capeldescent.com. 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2009.