Boyanup is a town on the

South Western Highway South Western Highway is a highway in the South West region of Western Australia connecting Perth's southeast with Walpole. It is a part of the Highway 1 network for most of its length. It is about long. Route description Perth to Bunbury ...

in the South West agricultural region, 195 km south of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and 18 km south-east of

Bunbury, Western Australia Bunbury () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's third most populous city after Perth and Mandurah, with a population of approximately 75,000. Loca ...

. The town is located on the

Preston River The Preston River is a river in the South West region of Western Australia. The river has a total length of and rises near Goonac siding then flows in a north-westerly direction until discharging into the Leschenault Estuary. The headwaters ...

. Boyanup is a

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the South West, Western Australia, south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton, Western Aus ...

name, said to mean "a place of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

" as "Boya" means "rock" or "stone". The first European in the area was Lieutenant

Henry William Bunbury Henry William Bunbury (1 July 1750 – 7 May 1811) was an English caricaturist. The second son of Sir William Bunbury, 5th Baronet (see Bunbury baronets), of Mildenhall, Suffolk, he came of an old Norman family. He was educated at Westminste ...

, who in December 1836 explored the route from Pinjarra to

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West (Western Australia), South West region of the States and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destin ...

and thought it to be ideal for farming. In 1845 Dublin solicitor James Bessonnet took up Location 54 in the Wellington District, consisting of 385 acres through which the Preston River flowed and the new road from Bunbury to the Blackwood had just been completed. The land also had a natural spring, sometimes known as Bessonnet Springs, and a permanent

billabong In Australian English, a billabong ( ) is a small body of water, usually permanent. It is usually an oxbow lake caused by a change in course of a river or creek, but other types of small lakes, ponds or waterholes are also called billabongs ...

. Bessonnet named his farm ''Boyanup''. Bessonnet left the colony in 1849 aboard ''Despatch''. Location 54 proved to be "too far from anywhere to be workable and eventually the bush took it back". A road survey in 1869 shows the town name as "Boyinup". In 1894 the

South Western Railway South Western Railway Limited, trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the South Western Railway (2017–2025), operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR ...

was completed from Perth to Bunbury. The Bunbury to Boyanup section was completed on 30 November 1887. The townsite was gazetted in 1894. A railway line extension between Boyanup and

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the Parishes of Barbados, parish of Saint Michael, Barbados, Saint Mic ...

opened on 1 November 1898. The population of the town was 198 (103 males and 95 females) in 1898. The Yoganup North Mine site, located north-west of the town and closed in 1997, is owned by

Iluka Resources Iluka Resources is an Australian resources company, specialising in mineral sands exploration, project development, operations and marketing. Iluka is the largest producer of zircon and titanium dioxidederived rutile and synthetic rutile global ...

and where

mineral sands Heavy mineral sands are a class of ore deposit which is an important source of zirconium, titanium, thorium, tungsten, rare-earth elements, the industrial minerals diamond, sapphire, garnet, and occasionally precious metals or gemstones. Heavy mi ...

were mined and separated.

References

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Shire of Capel