The Carbunup River is located in the south-west corner of Western Australia. The mouth of the Carbunup River is approximately west of
Busselton
Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...
where the river flows into
Geographe Bay
Geographe Bay is in the south-west of Western Australia around 220 km southwest of Perth.
The bay was named in May 1801 by French explorer Nicolas Baudin, after his ship, ''Géographe''. The bay is a wide curve of coastline extending from ...
.
The Carbunup River is in length and flows north from its headwaters in the Treeton State Forest/Whicher Range in the
Shire of Augusta-Margaret River
Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the begin ...
.
The nearest water courses are Mary Brook to the west and Buayanyup River to the east; both of these rivers travel parallel to the Carbunup River. The catchment area is of which 55% is cleared. The Carbunup River is located in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste area where it crosses two physiographic regions, the 15 km wide
Swan Coastal Plain
The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...
and the gently undulating Blackwood Plateau.
The only tributary of the river is Island Brook.
History
The river was originally named the Lennox River after Lennox Bussell by Captain
John Molloy in 1835.
The name was changed to Carbunup River, the local Aboriginal word that means either "place of a kindly stream", "place of cormorants" or "place of the stinkwood thicket".
References
Rivers of the South West region
{{WesternAustralia-river-stub