Bowen, Queensland

Bowen Queensland
Top: Playground at Bowen Foreshore, Middle left: Bowen Foreshore, Middle right: Walkway along Santa Barbara parade, Bottom left: Muller's Lagoon, Bottom right: Bowen Skatebowl
Bowen
Coordinates	20°01′0″S 148°14′0″E / 20.01667°S 148.23333°E / -20.01667; 148.23333Coordinates: 20°01′0″S 148°14′0″E / 20.01667°S 148.23333°E / -20.01667; 148.23333
Population	10,260 (2011 census)
Postcode(s)	4805
Elevation	5 m (16 ft)
Location	1,159 km (720 mi) NW of Brisbane 189 km (117 mi) NW of Mackay 201 km (125 mi) SE of Townsville
LGA(s)	Whitsunday Region
State electorate(s)	Burdekin
Federal Division(s)	Dawson
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 28.5 °C 83 °F 19.8 °C 68 °F 1,009.6 mm 39.7 in
Localities around Bowen: Guthalungra Coral Sea Coral Sea Bogie Bowen Gregory River Bogie Lake Proserpine Mount Pluto

Bowen is a town and locality in the Whitsunday Region on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. At the 2011 census, Bowen had a population of 10,260.

Bowen is located on the north-east coast, in North Queensland, Australia, at exactly twenty degrees south of the equator. The twentieth parallel crosses the main street. Bowen is halfway between Townsville and Mackay, and 1,130 kilometres (700 mi) by road from Brisbane.

Bowen sits on a square peninsula, with the Coral Sea to the north, east, and south. To the south-east is Port Denison. On the western side, where the peninsula connects with the mainland, the Don River's alluvial plain provides fertile soil that supports a prosperous farming industry.

The town enjoys a diversified and prosperous economy based on agriculture, fishing, tourism, and mining. Its unusually dry climate for a tropical location, plus its fertile alluvial soil, makes it the ideal place to grow a wide variety of small crops, including tomatoes, rockmelons (i.e., cantaloupes), and capsicums (i.e., green peppers). Outside the alluvial plain, much of the Bowen area is used for beef cattle.

Just north of Bowen is the Abbot Point coal loading port. Coal mined inland of Bowen in Collinsville and other towns in the Bowen Basin is brought by rail to a deepwater pier to be loaded on bulk carriers. Coal is exported mainly to China and India.

In 1944 Bowen elected a Communist, Fred Paterson, to Queensland Legislative Assembly. He was re-elected in 1947, but lost the seat in 1950 when the boundaries were changed to include Bowen in the seat of Whitsunday.