The Leap, Queensland
The Leap is a coastal rural locality in the Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. In the The Leap had a population of 642 people. Geography. The locality is bounded to the north-west by Constant Creek and to the north by its mouth () into the Coral Sea. Sand Bay is offshore (). The Bruce Highway enters the locality from the south-east (Farleigh) and exits to the south-west (Hampden). The North Coast railway line follows a similar route to the north of the highway but there are no railway stations on that line serving the locality. There is  a network of cane tramways in the locality to transport the harvested sugarcane to the sugar mill for processing. The locality has a number of named peaks, including: History. 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 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 (). 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): In the 2011 census, The Leap had a population of 673 people. In the The Leap had a population of 642 people. Heritage listings. The Leap has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: Attractions. A sculpture of the  murdered Aboriginal woman, clutching her swaddled child, stands outside the local hotel at The Leap.