The Buayanyup River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

in the South West region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The headwaters of the river rise in the Whicher Range and flow north crossing the

Bussell Highway Bussell Highway is a generally north–south highway in the South West region of Western Australia. The highway links the city of Bunbury with the town of Augusta and is approximately in length. The highway is signed ''State Route 10'', exc ...

near Vasse before discharging 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 ...

near

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

about west of Busselton. The river has three main tributaries of Dawson Gulley, Ironstone Gully and the other is not named. In total the river has a stream length of over . The river flows through agricultural land that is predominantly used for raising

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

and

dairy cattle Dairy cattle (also called dairy cows) are cattle bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species '' Bos taurus''. Historically, little distinction was ...

and to a lesser degree

plantation timber A tree plantation, forest plantation, plantation forest, timber plantation or tree farm is a forest planted for high volume production of wood, usually by planting one type of tree as a monoculture forest. The term ''tree farm'' also is used to ...

and

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...

. The area has been settled since 1834 when the Bussell family established a cattle station along the

Vasse River The Vasse River is a river in the South West of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river are in the Whicher Range below Chapman Hill and it flows in a northerly direction through the City of Busselton until discharging into the Vasse E ...

. More farming families followed and now over 50% of the catchment is used for cattle farming. The name of the river was first recorded by a surveyor in 1839 and is Aboriginal in origin but its meaning is unknown.

References

{{coord, 33, 41, 44, S, 115, 14, 25, E, type:river_region:AU-WA, display=title Rivers of the South West region