Bowen Hills (4006)
On the Northside just 3 km from the centre of Brisbane, Bowen Hills (4006) was named for Sir George Bowen, a Governor of Queensland. In 1886, a local, William Perry built the iconic Miegunyah House which continues to function to this day as a museum. In the mid-1900s Cloudland was a prominent structure on the top of the hill and well known for its dances. However, it was demolished in 1982 to make way for what heralded the beginning of rapid high-density high rise apartment development in the area followed by retail and commercial development to cater to the increasing influx of residents.
Bowen Hills is home to a number of other well-known sites. The Twelfth Night Theatre has given rise to a number of famous actors. The Old Museum has been reinvigorated as the home to the Queensland Youth Orchestra and various other music/arts groups. The popular Royal Queensland show continues to be held annually in the Exhibition Grounds with increasing attendance numbers. Perry Park Stadium is mainly a soccer venue. Bowen Park is a small garden first established in 1863.
More recently, notable commercial activity in the area has included Virgin Village, the headquarters of Virgin Australia, with over 1000 employees, Sunstate Airlines, and the headquarters of two newspapers, the Courier Mail and the Sunday Mail.
Bowen Hills is also well situated at a crossroads of various transport routes so that it is readily accessible to Brisbane and surrounding suburbs. All rail services to Brisbane, including express trains, stop at Bowen Hills which is also situated at the apex of several interconnecting roads including the Airport Link Tunnel connecting to the northern suburbs, the Inner City Bypass connecting to the western suburbs, and the Clem Jones Tunnel connecting to the southern suburbs and the Gold Coast.
In 2011, 1700 people lived in Bowen Hills, their average age is 31 years. Bowen Hills is a very multicultural suburb with residents fro a broad range of countries apart from Australia, namely New Zealand, England, Korea, China, Taiwan, and India such that Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, Italian, and Spanish were spoken as well as English at home.
