Bowen Downs Station
Located on Iningai country about 36 kilometres east-northeast of Muttaburra, 67 kilometres north-northwest of Aramac, 193 kilometres south-southeast of Hughenden and 469 kilometres west-southwest of Mackay, the Bowen Downs pastoral lease has operated both as a sheep and cattle station since 1862. The property is watered by the Thomson River and two of its tributaries — Reedy Creek and Cornish Creek.
When William Landsborough and Nathaniel Buchanan passed through the area in 1860, Landsborough named it after Queensland Governor Sir George Bowen. After the duo applied for the lease, they formed a partnership with Robert Morehead and Matthew Young of the Scottish Australian Investment Company and Landsborough's friend Edward Cornish to finance the venture. They stocked the new 1,500 square mile/3,885 square kilometre property with 3,000 cattle. The following year, in 1863, Aramac Station, south of Bowen Downs, was settled. Bowen, about 440 kilometres northeast of the properties as the crow flies, served as the port and source of supplies for both stations.
Buchanan was the property's first manager, but he abandoned his one-eighth share when he walked off Bowen Downs during the 1867 drought. However, by 1870, the property encompassed twenty-six separate runs and was regarded as one of Australia's finest, stretching over 200 kilometres across Central Queensland's plains and supporting a herd of 60,000 cattle on its Mitchell grass pastures.
Bowen Downs was the source of the cattle Harry Redford and his accomplices George Dewdney and William Rooke stole, overlanded down Cooper Creek and sold to Blanchewater Station for £5000.
