Bowen

Bowen grows a large share of Australia's mangoes, particularly the Kensington Pride variety commonly called the Bowen mango, and marks it with a ten-metre fibreglass mango beside the visitor centre, one of the country's better-known big things. The town has eight beaches on a series of small bays, of which Horseshoe Bay is the most sheltered and popular, with granite headlands, snorkelling and clear water. In 2007 the town was dressed as 1940s Darwin for the filming of a major Australian feature, and some of the set work is commemorated. Bowen was the first European settlement in North Queensland, founded in 1861, and murals through town record that history.

History

The area lies in the country of Biri speakers, and James Cook named Cape Gloucester in 1770, which proved to be an island, Gloucester Island, sheltering the bay the town was built around; the castaway James Morrill lived here briefly with the local Aboriginal clan around 1850. In 1859 Captain Henry Daniel Sinclair, seeking a reward offered for a port north of Rockhampton, found a most splendid harbour and named it Port Denison after the governor of New South Wales, William Denison (Wikipedia, Bowen, Queensland).

What you'll find

• The Big Mango - the ten-metre fibreglass fruit by the visitor centre.
• Horseshoe Bay - the sheltered bay with granite headlands and snorkelling.
• The town murals - painted panels recording local and settlement history.
• The mango season - fruit stalls and picking work through the harvest.

When to go

May to October for the dry season and stinger-free swimming; the mango harvest runs roughly October to January, which is also stinger and cyclone season. Winter brings backpackers for farm work and fills hostels.

Things to know

Stinger season restricts ocean swimming from November to May. The town is a working agricultural centre and quiet outside harvest. Cyclones have hit the area repeatedly, most severely in 2017.

Nearby

Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays lie southeast; Townsville is north.

Key facts