This thesis is a regional study of the coastal port settlement of Bowen and its interaction with the surrounding Kennedy d istrict of North Queensland, thrown open for settlement in 1861. The primary focus of the study is the progress of the first generation of settlement, 1861-1880. Presented in generally chronological form, the experimental successes and failures of the first white inhabitants of Australia's first enduring tropical settlement are examined. The emphasis is social, but issues of regional frontier economics, immigration from Europe and other Australian colonies, patterns of settlement in the district, political development featuring the first North Queensland separation movement, race relations during initial contact between the whites and Aborigines and sea and overland communications are integral components. For administrative purposes, the Queensland Government sub-divided the Kennedy into two regions, north and south, and it was the south Kennedy with which*Bowen most interacted. Bowen was the first of several coastal frontier towns in the North Queensland area. Its early ambition was to become the capital of a new North Queensland colony, but rivalries for prominence in the region soon arose. Eventually, the centre of Townsville, to Bowen's north, overshadowed the first settlement, and by 1880, the future of Bowen as a permanent but secondary port was determined.

This thesis is a regional study of the coastal port settlement of Bowen and its interaction with the surrounding Kennedy d istrict of North Queensland, thrown open for settlement in 1861. The primary focus of the study is the progress of the first generation of settlement, 1861-1880. Presented in generally chronological form, the experimental successes and failures of the first white inhabitants of Australia's first enduring tropical settlement are examined. The emphasis is social, but issues of regional frontier economics, immigration from Europe and other Australian colonies, patterns of settlement in the district, political development featuring the first North Queensland separation movement, race relations during initial contact between the whites and Aborigines and sea and overland communications are integral components. For administrative purposes, the Queensland Government sub-divided the Kennedy into two regions, north and south, and it was the south Kennedy with which*Bowen most interacted. Bowen was the first of several coastal frontier towns in the North Queensland area. Its early ambition was to become the capital of a new North Queensland colony, but rivalries for prominence in the region soon arose. Eventually, the centre of Townsville, to Bowen's north, overshadowed the first settlement, and by 1880, the future of Bowen as a permanent but secondary port was determined.