Capel

Capel is a town in the South West region of Western Australia, located 212 kilometres (132 mi) south of Perth and midway between Bunbury and Busselton.

Capel is a town in the South West region of Western Australia, located 212 kilometres (132 mi) south of Perth and midway between Bunbury and Busselton. The town is located on the Capel River and is approximately 19 metres (62 ft) above sea level.

The Capel area was originally inhabited by the Wardandi Noongar people.

Colonists visited the region early in the history of colonial Western Australia.The Capel River was visited by Frederick Ludlow in 1834, but it was not given an English name until the Bussell family settled in the area soon afterwards.The name honours Capel Carter Brockman (1839–1924), daughter of John Bussell (1803–1875), herself named after a Miss Capel Carter, a cousin of the Bussells in England with whom Bussell family members corresponded. In the 1830s a number of settlers followed the Bussells into the area, and both James Stirling and John Hutt, (the first two Governors of Western Australia) took up land in the region.

Plans to establish a townsite in the area were first mooted in 1844, but the site was not surveyed until the 1870s and lots were not sold until 1897. Initially the town was named Coolingnup, which is the Noongar name for the place; the name was changed to Capel in 1899.

The climate is hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa), at a certain distance from the headquarters, Forrest Beach has the warm-summer version as in Busselton or southern California (Csb), delimiting the northern limit of the second climatic zone on the Australian coast.Capel has hot dry summers and cool wet winters.Daily temperatures range from 13 °C to 40 °C in summer, and from 5 °C to 27 °C in winter.Average annual rainfall is about 830 mm.