Margaret River is a river in southwest Western Australia. Although small and unremarkable, it is the eponym of the iconic town and tourist region of Margaret River, famous for its surfing, caves and wine.
The river arises from a catchment of just 40 square kilometres in the Whicher Ranges. For much of its middle reaches it passes through land cleared for agriculture, especially viticulture. There is a weir across the river just above the town. The mouth of the river is a small estuary, closed to the ocean by a sandbar that opens only seasonally.
Margaret River is presumed to be named after Margaret Wyche, cousin of John Garrett Bussell (founder of Busselton) in 1831.
Famous quotes containing the words margaret and/or river:
“There’s Margaret and Marjorie and Dorothy and Nan,
A Daphne and a Mary who live in privacy;
One’s had her fill of lovers, another’s had but one,
Another boasts, “I pick and choose and have but two or three.”
If head and limb have beauty and the instep’s high and light
They can spread out what sail they please for all I have to say....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The murmurs of many a famous river on the other side of the globe reach even to us here, as to more distant dwellers on its banks; many a poet’s stream, floating the helms and shields of heroes on its bosom.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)