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Cape Naturaliste Western Australia | |
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Cape Naturaliste is a headland in the south western region of Western Australia at the western edge of the Geographe Bay. It is the northernmost point of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge which was named after the cape. Also the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse and the Cape to Cape hiking track were named after this location.
The nearest settlement is Bunker Bay – a community that evolved from holiday shacks to very expensive housing for wealthy residents as well as featuring a popular beach resort. Further east, across the Bay, is Dunsborough, a much older settlement. Busselton is located still further east from there.
The first peoples in Cape Naturaliste were the Wardandi Aboriginals, who called it Kwirreejeenungup, meaning 'the place with the beautiful view'. [1] In 1801, the French navigator Nicolas Baudin stopped here on 30 May during his exploration of Australia. [2] : 57 The French were mapping the coast of New Holland (Australia). Baudin named the bay they found Geographe Bay, after his flagship, Géographe . [2] : 57 Later, the cape was named after the expedition's second ship, Naturaliste . [2] : 57 [3]
Cape Naturaliste has a warm-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb, with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
Climate data for Cape Naturaliste (33º32'S, 115º01'E, 109 m AMSL) (1903-2024 normals and extremes) | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 40.6 (105.1) | 39.4 (102.9) | 37.4 (99.3) | 32.1 (89.8) | 27.8 (82.0) | 24.3 (75.7) | 22.9 (73.2) | 23.6 (74.5) | 27.5 (81.5) | 31.7 (89.1) | 36.7 (98.1) | 38.5 (101.3) | 40.6 (105.1) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 25.6 (78.1) | 26.0 (78.8) | 24.6 (76.3) | 22.0 (71.6) | 19.3 (66.7) | 17.4 (63.3) | 16.4 (61.5) | 16.5 (61.7) | 17.4 (63.3) | 19.0 (66.2) | 21.6 (70.9) | 23.8 (74.8) | 20.8 (69.4) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 15.3 (59.5) | 15.7 (60.3) | 15.1 (59.2) | 13.9 (57.0) | 12.6 (54.7) | 11.5 (52.7) | 10.5 (50.9) | 10.1 (50.2) | 10.4 (50.7) | 11.1 (52.0) | 12.5 (54.5) | 14.0 (57.2) | 12.7 (54.9) |
Record low °C (°F) | 7.8 (46.0) | 8.9 (48.0) | 6.4 (43.5) | 5.1 (41.2) | 6.1 (43.0) | 4.2 (39.6) | 4.1 (39.4) | 3.7 (38.7) | 3.8 (38.8) | 4.6 (40.3) | 5.2 (41.4) | 7.5 (45.5) | 3.7 (38.7) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 10.6 (0.42) | 11.7 (0.46) | 22.9 (0.90) | 44.2 (1.74) | 113.6 (4.47) | 160.2 (6.31) | 158.8 (6.25) | 112.2 (4.42) | 75.1 (2.96) | 48.6 (1.91) | 25.4 (1.00) | 13.1 (0.52) | 793.6 (31.24) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 1.9 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 6.6 | 12.9 | 16.7 | 18.8 | 16.4 | 12.6 | 8.9 | 5.0 | 2.7 | 107.6 |
Average afternoon relative humidity (%) | 57 | 56 | 58 | 62 | 69 | 72 | 72 | 70 | 68 | 65 | 61 | 59 | 64 |
Average dew point °C (°F) | 14.1 (57.4) | 14.4 (57.9) | 13.6 (56.5) | 12.7 (54.9) | 11.8 (53.2) | 10.8 (51.4) | 9.8 (49.6) | 9.5 (49.1) | 9.9 (49.8) | 10.6 (51.1) | 11.9 (53.4) | 13.0 (55.4) | 11.8 (53.3) |
Source: Bureau of Meteorology [4] |
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Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet was a French Navy officer. He circumnavigated the Earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia.
Nicolas Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. He carried a few corms of Gros Michel banana from Southeast Asia, depositing them at a botanical garden on the Caribbean island of Martinique.
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia.
Flinders Bay is a bay in western Australia, immediately south of the townsite of Augusta, and close to the mouth of the Blackwood River.
Thomas Timothée Vasse was a French sailor who was lost in the surf on the south west coast of Australia in 1801, and presumed drowned. From Vasse's name is taken the name the Vasse, an early name for Busselton, for the land adjacent to where the incident occurred, the town of Vasse, and also a number of geographical features in the area including Vasse River and Vasse Inlet.
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Baron Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin was a rear admiral of the French navy and later a Baron. He commanded numerous naval expeditions and battles with the Royal Navy as well as exploratory voyages in the Indian Ocean and the South Seas.
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The Baudin expedition of 1800 to 1803 was a French expedition to map the coast of New Holland. Nicolas Baudin was selected as leader in October 1800. The expedition started with two ships, Géographe, captained by Baudin, and Naturaliste captained by Jacques Hamelin, and was accompanied by nine zoologists and botanists, including Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour, François Péron and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur as well as the geographer Pierre Faure.
Géographe was a 20-gun Serpente-class corvette of the French Navy. She was named Uranie in 1797, and renamed Galatée in 1799, still on her building site. Her builder refused to launch her, as he had not been paid to that time. Finally launched in June 1800, she was renamed Géographe on 23 August 1800.
Naturaliste was one of the two-vessel Salamandre-class of galiotes à bombes of the French Navy. Under Jacques Hamelin, and together with Géographe she took part in the exploration of Australia of Nicolas Baudin.
Charles-Pierre Boullanger (1772–1813) was a French geographer who served on Nicolas Baudin's scientific expedition to the South Pacific and its islands from 1800 to 1803. He was a midshipman cartographer and hydrographic engineer on the survey vessel Le Géographe with the sister ship Naturaliste. During this expedition he produced, with Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, a detailed map of the east coast of Australia.
The Freycinet Map of 1811 is the first map of Australia to be published which shows the full outline of Australia. It was drawn by Louis de Freycinet and was an outcome of the Baudin expedition to Australia. It preceded the publication of Matthew Flinders' map of Australia, Terra Australis or Australia, by three years.
Cape Mentelle is a limestone headland on the Indian Ocean coast of south-western Western Australia. It is within the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, just north of the mouth of the Margaret River and 9 km (5.6 mi) west of the town of Margaret River. It lies on the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge, halfway between Cape Naturaliste 50 km (31 mi) to the north, and Cape Leeuwin 50 km (31 mi) to the south, on the route of the Cape to Cape walking track.
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