Bowenia spectabilis is found in northeastern Queensland from the McIlwraith Range on the Cape York Peninsula south to near Tully. It is a rainforest species, growing close to streams and on sheltered slopes in lowland wet sclerophyll forest, but also at an altitude of up to 700 metres in the Atherton Tableland.^[2]

The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia' records that the yam-like rhizome is used for food by the Indigenous Australians.^[3]

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  Bowenia spectabilis at Mossman Gorge, Queensland, Australia
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  Bowenia spectabilis (typical form) in the Daintree Rainforest in northeast Queensland, Australia
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  Bowenia spectabilis at Mossman Gorge, Queensland, Australia
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  Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form in sclerophyll woodland near Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, far north Queensland
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  Serrulate margin of the pinnae on a wild plant of Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form, at Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, Queensland, Australia
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  Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form in sclerophyll woodland near Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, far north Queensland
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  Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form in sclerophyll woodland after recent bushfire, near Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, far north Queensland
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  Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form in sclerophyll woodland near Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, far north Queensland

• "Bowenia spectabilis Hook. ex Hook.f." Atlas of Living Australia.