The Leap

The Leap is a coastal rural locality in the Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia.

The Leap is a coastal rural locality in the Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census The Leap had a population of 642 people.

The area takes its English name from The Leap railway station which, in turn,,took its name from an historical event on top of a local mountain, Mount Mandarana.In April 1867 a local Aboriginal woman was among a large group of 200 Aboriginal men, women and children from the north side of the Pioneer River, being pursued by a Queensland Native Police Force, led by Sub-Inspector Robert Arthur Johnstone, in April 1867. The group was camping on Balnagowan pastoral lease (just to the south of The Leap), where cattle had been speared in February 1867. The woman and others in the group which had sought refuge in caves at the top of the mountain, were forced to jump off a cliff on Mount Mandarana of several hundred feet, rather than face the carbines of the Native Police Force.The Aboriginal woman's child (she may have been 3 years old) survived the massacre and was baptised Johanna 'Judy' Hazeldene on 22 July 1867 and she married an English man named George Howes in 1887, by whom she had a boy (Bill) and a daughter (Esme or May).Johanna Hazeldene died on 25 December 1897 and is buried in Mackay Cemetery.The Leap Provisional School opened on 13 March 1893. On 1 January 1909 it became The Leap State School. In 1919 Arthur Edward Hunter (of The Leap Hotel) donated 1.1786 hectares (2.912 acres) of land for the school. The school closed on 8 August 1969. As the land had been donated for school purposes, the usual practice was that the land was returned to the donor or their heirs. Two people made claims to be Hunter's relatives, the Queensland Government did not find the claims to be proven and decided in 1988 to sell the land and kept the proceeds. The school was at 2105 Maraju Yakapari Road (21.0700°S 149.00847°E? / -21.0700; 149.00847? (The Leap State School (former))).The North Coast railway line reached The Leap in 1924 with the area being served by the following now-abandoned stations (from south to north):

Wundaru railway station (21.0869°S 149.0597°E? / -21.0869; 149.0597? (Wundaru railway station))

Mapalo railway station (21.0823°S 149.0426°E? / -21.0823; 149.0426? (Mapalo railway station))The Leap railway station (21.0774°S 149.0247°E? / -21.0774; 149.0247? (The Leap railway station))

Yakapari railway station (21.0690°S 149.0029°E? / -21.0690; 149.0029? (Yakapari railway station))In the 2011 census, The Leap had a population of 673 people.In the 2016 census The Leap had a population of 642 people.

A sculpture of the murdered Aboriginal woman, clutching her swaddled child, stands outside the local hotel at The Leap.