The Capel 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 The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

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 ...

that rises in the

Darling Range The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to t ...

east of Mullalyup, and flows into the Indian Ocean at

Peppermint Grove Beach Peppermint Grove Beach is a residential subdivision and beachside town in the South West region of Western Australia. Its local government area is the Shire of Capel and it is located northwest of Capel on the Geographe Bay coast near the Cape ...

. 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 The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

Aboriginals of the

Wardandi The Wadandi, also spelt Wardandi and other variants, are an Aboriginal people of south-western Western Australia, one of fourteen language groups of the Noongar peoples. Name There are at least three theories about the meaning of the tribal eth ...

dialect group. They called the river Coolingup. 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 local Aboriginals because they buried their dead there. A slaughter of Aboriginals occurred in 1841, by

John Bussell John Garrett Bussell (16 August 1803 – 17 September 1875) was an early settler in Western Australia. John Garrett Bussell was born at Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire in England on 16 August 1803. He was educated at Winchester College in Englan ...

and a number of settlers, following the murder of George Layman by the Aboriginal elder Gaywal. The Aboriginals later avoided the place. The river was given its English name after Capel Carter Brockman (1839–1924), daughter of John Bussell (1803–1875), 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 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 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 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 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 was held in June 2009 which consisted of a part down river, part open ocean paddle along the Capel River and

References

Rivers of the South West region {{WesternAustralia-river-stub