Gowrie Junction is a rural/residential town seven km north-west of central Toowoomba. It was named after the Gowrie pastoral station (1841), which occupied an area between Toowoomba and Oakey.
In 1869 a branch railway line opened, running from west of Toowoomba to the southern Downs towns of Cambooya and Clifton, and by 1871 it had been extended to Warwick. The station where the line began was named Gowrie Junction. It also took traffic from Millmerran and Pittsworth when that branch became operative in two stages (1887 and 1911), as the Millmerran line did not have a direct route to Toowoomba. A few kilometres along the railway line towards Oakey, at the town of Kingsthorpe, there were the Gowrie coal mines. They were unrelated to Gowrie Junction, other than as a coal supply for the locomotives.
In 1904 the post office directory recorded a stone-crushing plant and a fellmongery at Gowrie Junction, together with a store and a hotel.
The town has since lost the 'junction' that contributed to its name (the connection with the Warwick and Millmerran lines having ended in 1959), and is today a population centre for local and Toowoomba-commuter employment. It has local tradespeople, a store, a progress association, a recreation hall and a State primary school (1878). Subdivision of surrounding land for housing estates, coupled with the town's proximity to Toowoomba, has spurred significant growth in recent years.
Gowrie Junction's census populations have been:
| Census Date | Population |
|---|---|
| 1911 | 338 |
| 1933 | 226 |
| 1961 | 174 |
| 2001 | 798 |
| 2006 | 1417 |
| 2011 | 1939 |
