and ¾ height walls have subdivided most of the principal rooms into smaller areas. This includes the former mailroom which has three main sections: post office box lobby (west), retail shop and counter (centre) and interview rooms (east). A new mailroom and loading bay area has been added to the building (northwest corner), aligned to the original rear verandah which retains its original raked ceiling. The rooms associated with the original telegraph facility (northeast corner) have also been subdivided, although the timber framed and glazed partitions remain intact. Notwithstanding the changed pattern of circulation and use, the external presentation of the building is able to demonstrate key aspects of the original design, particularly the parapeted frontage, hipped roof form, smooth rendered wall finishes and stylised mouldings. The main alteration is associated with addition of the mailroom and loading dock which fronts Powell Street and has involved the extension of the original roof line and is indistinguishable as new work. Elsewhere, changes include the addition of the disabled ramp to east porch and steel-framed awnings over the walkways at the rear of the building. Internally, much of the original fabric and detailing are intact, although largely concealed by new finishes. Despite changes to its pattern of circulation and use, and while altered, Bowen Post Office maintains a reasonable ability to demonstrate its original design and manner of construction, and this is most evident externally with the building's street frontages. Externally and internally the building is in relatively sound condition. Heritage listing Bowen Post Office was listed on the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 8 November 2011 having satisfied the following criteria. Criterion A: Processes Bowen Post Office, constructed in 1936, is one of many small single-storey post offices designed built throughout Queensland in the interwar period to service its towns and regional centres. The building has clear associations with the regional development of southern Mackay. These aspects of the building's history are of local significance. The significant components of Bowen Post Office include the main postal building constructed in 1936. Criterion B: Rarity While the application of Art Deco detail to the Bowen Post office is concentrated along the Herbert Street parapeted frontage, is restrained to three-dimensional massing and symmetry with stylised low-relief decoration, and is conservative in design terms, the application is comparatively rare in terms of the post offices surveyed. The stylistic treatment includes the moulded columns, capitals, keystones