page_title: Bowen Courthouse
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bowen Courthouse / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Court House in Bowen, 1894
context_page_description: Bowen Courthouse is a heritage-listed courthouse at 30 Williams Street, Bowen, Whitsunday Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by George St Paul Connolly of the Colonial Architect's Office and built in 1880 by Southall & Tracey. It is also known as Bowen Court House. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
  The courthouse was completed in 1881 in the Classical Revival style. It is a two-storey building and was constructed in rendered brick with a corrugated iron roof.
  It is still in use today and contains most of the original furniture and features.
context_section_description: The Bowen Court House is a substantial masonry building in Classical Revival style, prominently located on the corner of Herbert and Williams Streets, Bowen. It was built in 1880 to house the Northern Supreme Court, the Bowen Post Office and Government Offices. Since 1899 it has functioned as a District and Magistrates court.
  In 1859 prior to the separation of Queensland, the Government of New South Wales commissioned Captain H.D. Sinclair to find a suitable site for a port to support the pastoral development of the Kennedy district. He selected a place on Port Denison, an inlet of the Coral Sea, although Queensland became a separate colony before settlement took place there. The new township, designated a Port of Entry, was formally established on 12 April 1861 and named after Sir George Ferguson Bowen, first Governor of Queensland. The first pastoral run in the area, Strathmore, was taken up in the same year by the Cunningham family who were quickly followed by other graziers eager to establish grazing properties. A Police Magistrate was appointed to serve Bowen in late 1860 and a temporary courthouse was constructed. Bowen soon became a major administrative and commercial centre and was declared a municipality (the Borough of Bowen) on 17 March 1863 in the courthouse. This was merely a small slab hut without a verandah and which was not weather proof. After local agitation, tenders for a Court House were called in October 1864, though a building was not constructed. Two other northern ports were established in 1864, at Cardwell and Townsville.
  In Nov 1865, Bowen became a District Court area. Judge Joseph Innes, later to become Attorney General and Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, was appointed as Bowen's first District Court Judge. He arrived in early 1866 and held court in the Municipal Chambers. Because of the financial crisis taking place in Queensland in 1866, the planned courthouse did not go forward and in early 1867, the judge made unauthorised changes to the court house to improve conditions.
  In 1874, recognising the rapid development of North Queensland, due largely to the discovery of gold, the Supreme Court Act increased the number of judges in Queensland to 4, of which 1 was to reside in Bowen as "the Northern Judge". The Bowen Supreme Court formally opened before His Honour Mr Justice Edmund Sheppard on 21 Oct 1874. The Supreme Court first sat in Townsville on 12 Feb 1875, Bowen 26 Feb 1875, and Cooktown 29 May 1876.
  Queensland developed as a series of ports linked to inland resources. Bowen was disadvantaged, despite its excellent harbour, because it was located on a flood plain and the Burdekin River flooded regularly, cutting off the port from the hinterland for extended periods. Bowen's importance decreased in the 1870s following the success of Townsville, which had better access routes to pastoral mining and centres, particularly the major goldfields at Charters Towers and the Palmer River.
  By May 1877, all the government buildings in Bowen had become dilapidated and it was recommended that it would be more economic in the long term, allowing for the tropical climate, to construct new buildings in masonry. The site selected for the new court was considered the best in town and plans were completed by July 1879. Presumably for reasons of economy, the new building was to house several different functions in different parts of the building. A large court room occupied the centre of the building, rising to its full height The south wing was occupied by the Post Master, the ground floor containing the office, kitchen and servant's room, and the upper floor sitting and bedrooms. The lower floor of the north wing was designed to house officials of the Supreme Court, and the upper floor was shared by the Survey and Roads offices, with bedrooms for Court Officials.
  The building was designed in the Colonial Architect's office during the time when FDG Stanley was the Colonial Architect. Within the office, the design of the building is attributed to GS Connolly, who later became Colonial Architect 
caption: Bowen Courthouse, 1894
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