Bowen Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 46 Herbert Street, Bowen, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by the Commonwealth Department of the Interior and constructed in 1936. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 8 November 2011. History Bowen, near Port Denison in North Queensland, is halfway between Townsville and Mackay, approximately 1,130 kilometres by road from Brisbane. It is the region's oldest town, founded on the same day that the American Civil War began on 12 April 1861. George Dalrymple named the town after Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland. Port Denison was declared an official port of entry in the same year, and not long afterwards, the construction of a large timber jetty commenced in 1865. In 1869, the telegraph line from Bowen to Townsville was opened and following improvements to the port, including the completion of the jetty and the dredging of the harbour, shipping and handling of local produce, cargo, mail and passengers secured the primacy of the town in the region. By 1910, a tramway connected Proserpine with Bowen, permitting sugar from the Proserpine Sugar Mill to be shipped from Port Denison. The opening of the Bowen-Townsville railway line followed in 1913. The town's main thoroughfare is Herbert Street, which leads down to the port. It is a wide avenue with a central landscaped median strip and a prominent war memorial terminating the east axis. Bowen Post Office, constructed in 1936, is located on the southeast intersection with Powell Street. It replaced an earlier post office on Dalrymple Street. Several other municipal buildings nearby include the Bowen Shire Chambers (c.1920s), the memorial club directly opposite, and the Bowen courthouse, police and ambulance station. Since completion, a service wing has been added to the rear of the post office fronting Powell Street; a double storey redbrick exchange building is constructed on the north site boundary. To the east, with a shared right-of-way, a two-storey Telstra building has been built with a large steel-framed telecommunications tower in the rear yard. The building was designed by the Commonwealth Department of Interior under the control of architect Horace Mackennal. Description Bowen Post Office is at 46 Herbert Street, corner Powell Street, Bowen, comprising the whole of Lot 3 RP742488. Bowen Post Office is located at the corner of Herbert and Powell Streets at the top of the main thoroughfare through town, which