In hope of obtaining this reward, this little craft of only nine tons was fitted out at private expense, and sailed from Rockhampton on September 1st, 1859. The party consisted of Captain Sinclair, master; W. H. Thomas, seaman; and Messrs. James Gordon and Benjamin Poole, passengers. After piloting their way through islands and reefs and heavy storms, besides unknown dangers from the natives, they sailed into Port Denison on October 17th, 1859, and were gratified and surprised to find such a capacious and secure harbour. They landed and examined the bay, surveying and sketching some parts of it, but owing to the hostility and treachery of the natives, who were very numerous both on the islands and the mainland, they were not permitted to extend their knowledge of the port. The “Santa Barbara” left Port Denison on October 19th, and after boxing about for some time among the Cumberland Islands, reached Keppel Bay on her return on October 31st. The harbour is of an oval form, probably some ten miles in extreme length, and about four miles across from Station Island to the mainland; it is formed partly by an indentation in the coast, and partly by two islands running across it. Here at last was a port that would be a starting point for further settlement in the interior, a most suitable and secure harbour, discovered and opened up without any expense to the Government, and with such small means and outfit that the journal of those enterprising and heroic voyagers reads like a tale of romance. Although successful in this matter, they were not able to obtain the promised reward, for just at that time the separation of the new colony took place, and their claim was handed over to the new Government. A petition presented to the Queensland Parliament procured no further recognition than that Captain Sinclair was made Harbour Master, and Mr. James Gordon the first customs officer in Townsville.
Very little was at that time known of the interior comprising the Kennedy district, which was thrown open to pastoral occupation on November 17th, 1859, by proclamation of the New South Wales Government, it being then part of that colony. Leichhardt had passed through it down the Suttor; Mitchell just touched its southern extremity; Landsborough penetrated from the direction of Fort Cooper, into the upper waters of the Bowen, which river he discovered and called the Bonnar.
Bowen was settled by George Elphinstone Dalrymple, Police Magistrate and Commissioner of Crown Lands, and several squatters who had come overland with him, and also by a number of persons, including Mr. James Gordon, who arrived at Bowen from Rockhampton per schooner “Jeannie Dove” with stores, a few days before Mr. Dalrymple.
On the organisation of the new Queensland Government, a proclamation was issued withdrawing the Kennedy district from occupation, and the tenders previously received were returned to the tenderers.
These explorers of a new port and future city were deserving of a much higher and better recognition than was accorded them by either Government.
The first sale of Bowen town lands was held in Brisbane on October 7th, 1861, when eighty-nine lots were sold, realising £2,083. Many of those early investors were Brisbane men, well known in business and the professions. The lots were mostly half-acres in area, and averaged about £25 to £50 per acre, the first Bishop of Brisbane (Tuffnell) figuring largely among the land buyers. In 1863 the demand for land called for several sales, as the town was progressing on account of the large overlanding of stock and the shipments of supplies for parties taking up country to the north and west.
A land sale on April 20th, 1863, was held in Bowen, when seventy-nine lots were sold, realising £1,718; all the lots went above the upset price. On June 8th, 1863, another land sale took place in Bowen, when seventy-four lots were sold, realising £1,135; among these were some country lands in ten-acre lots, which realised the upset price, £3 7s. 6d. per acre. For town lots the upset price was £20 per acre; the competition for fancy lots was keen enough to run them up to as much as £100 per lot. Still another land sale had to be held to keep pace with the growing town, and the demands of speculators. This was held in Bowen on August 3rd, 1863, when seventy-three lots found purchasers, realising £2,643. This sale consisted mostly of country lands, put up in lots of from seventeen to fifty acres, at the upset price of £1 per acre; 1,518 acres were sold at this last land sale. These figures from official sources testify to the rapidity of the expansion of the new town, and to the high expectations that were formed as to its future rise and progress. Many familiar names occur in the annals of the official register, but most of the purchasers are now dead. Seaward, Marsh, and Genge, who had a large business as storekeepers, figure extensively as buyers, also Mr. J. G. Macdonald, James Hall Scott, Korah H. Willis, Thomas Cavanagh—a well-known celebrity of Bowen—and many other old identities are called to mind by looking through the list of the first land buyers in Bowen. Few now remain of those early speculators. The treasury of the young colony benefited by their ambition to hold land in the future capital of the north by the sum of £7,579.
The town wore gay and holiday aspect when the Governor, Sir G. F. Bowen, landed in 1865. The jetty at that time was being built, and the town was filled with squatters from all parts of the north, getting supplies or tendering for new country. Flags were flying, addresses of welcome were presented, a bullock was roasted whole on the beach, barrels of beer were on tap alongside the bullock, tons of bread were there to go with it, and an assorted crowd was ready to do justice to both bullock and beer. A levee was held, an undress one, of course, as evening dress had not reached so far north at that time, but coats were found for every one in which to make a bow to the Governor. The only block hat that had reached the latitude of Bowen was worn by Mr. R. H. Smith, afterwards member for the district, who had the honor of escorting His Excellency up to the town. A ball was held in the evening in honor of the event, and many other things took place that this chronicle will pass over.
Frederick Bode, at Strathdon, W. Powell, of Salisbury Plains, J. G. Macdonald, of Inkermann, Collings, at Eton Vale, A. C. Grant, at Dartmoor, all were settlers in Bowen district in the early days.