Augusta - Western Australia

	Augusta WA 6290
	Population: 1,290, Height above sea level: 14m Latitude: 34.1900, Longitude: 115.0900 Location: 350km south of Perth Highway: Brockman Hwy Nearest Major Town: Bunbury Nearest Airport: Albany Touring Area: South West
At the mouth of the Blackwood River overlooking Hardy Inlet in the south west of Western Australia. Timber, fishing, museums, walks. First sighted in 1622 by the Dutch, nearby Cape Leeuwin was renamed by Matthew Flinders on his explorations in 1801. Augusta was founded in 1830 and named after the Duke of Sussex, Prince Augustus Frederick. It became a stopover on the Flinders Bay Branch Railway between Busselton and Flinders Bay serving the timber industry. Whales visit the area along the coast and there are surfing breaks off the coast. The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse was opened in 1895 to guide ships around the treacherous cape and was manned until the 1980s. It is now part of a tourism complex and fully automated.