The sand mining operations at Capel are located about 25 km south of Bunbury in the south-western region of Western Australia, only a few kilometres from the coast and the Indian Ocean.
Towns near the mining operations include Capel, Bunbury to the north and Busselton to the south.
The region mostly consists of flat to gently undulating pastoral land, with occasional stands of trees and patches of bush. Agriculture is a significant industry in this area, with dairy and beef cattle grazing, and an increasing amount of viticulture (growing grapes for wine production).
Dairy farmland near Capel.
The region has a Mediterranean climate, with warm dry summers and cool wet winters. The average daily temperature maximum is about 28°C in summer and about 17°C in winter. Most of the rain falls in winter; the average June rainfall is about 183 mm compared with 11.1 mm in January.
Summary of the climate at Bunbury, WA, near the sandmining operations at Capel.
Tables of climatic data for Bunbury and many other Australian locations can be found at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's web-site.
