Bushrangers Hill, Newport
Bowen was a son of Bungaree and Toura. In the 1840s he and his wife Maria took their children to live on the Pittwater side of Barrenjoey.
Bowen was employed as a police tracker and customs officer. The Sydney Herald reported that Bowen has given information that led to the capture of three bushrangers. He was very effective in detecting illegal stills in the upper reaches of McCarrs Creek, Church Point.
He sailed with other Koories to the Californian gold fields because of their skill in sailing boats and in the hope to be given jobs to carry the goods of crowds of gold seekers flocking to the Eldorado. ‘Black Bowen’ was the only one to return. He spoke with ridicule about California, “That country! No wood for fire, but plenty cold wind … no good for me! No good for blackfellows!”
On his return Bowen resumed his duties as a police tracker and reported to police the activities of two assigned servants (convicts) who had escaped and become petty thieves on the Northern Beaches. But he made many enemies and in 1853 he was shot at this site. A bushranger Casey, who frequented Bushranger’s Hill, had murdered Bowen as he sat by his fire at night. His body was taken to St Lawrence Presbyterian Church cemetery but later he was reburied in the Pioneer Park at Botany.