The Leap, Queensland

The Leap is a coastal rural locality in the Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia.[2]

The Leap
Queensland
The Leap
Coordinates21°03′50″S 149°01′22″E
Population673 (2011 census)[1]
 • Density12.148/km2 (31.46/sq mi)
Postcode(s)4740
Area55.4 km2 (21.4 sq mi)
Location
LGA(s)Mackay Region
State electorate(s)Whitsunday
Federal Division(s)Dawson
Localities around The Leap:
Kuttabul Mount Jukes Coral Sea
Hampden The Leap Habana
Hampden Balnagowan Fairleigh

History

The area takes its English name from its railway station which took its name from an historical event on top of a local mountain, Mount Mandarana.[2]

The English place name derives from an historical event where 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 be face the carbines of the Native Police Force.[3] As historian Clive Moore notes[4] The Queensland Native Police "...operated more like a unit of a defence force than a police force, patrolling recently settled areas 'pacifying' and 'dispersing' Aborigines, euphemisms for exterminating whole tribes. The Leap massacre was one of many.". Historical records suggest that 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 that in later life, she married an English man named George Howes in 1887, by whom she had a boy (Bill) and a daughter (Esme or May).[5] Johanna Hazeldene died on 25 December 1897 and is buried in Mackay Cemetery.[6]

A sculpture of the murdered Aboriginal woman, clutching her swaddled child, stands outside the local hotel at The Leap.[7]

In the 2011 census, The Leap had a population of 673 people.[1]

Heritage listings

The Leap has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

References
  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (31 October 2012). "The Leap". 2011 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  2. "The Leap (entry 46844)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  3. Moore, Clive. "Blackgin's Leap: A Window into Aboriginal-European Relations in the Pioneer Valley, Queensland in the 1860s" (PDF). Aboriginal History Incorporated. p. 61. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  4. C. Moore "Blackgin's Leap: A Window into Aboriginal-European Relations in the Pioneer Valley, Queensland in the 1860s", Aboriginal History, Volume 14, pp.61- 79 at page 68.
  5. C. Moore "Blackgin's Leap: A Window into Aboriginal-European Relations in the Pioneer Valley, Queensland in the 1860s", Aboriginal History, Volume 14, at page 67-68
  6. Source accessed 12 December 2015: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. See the Leap Hotel website: http://www.theleaphotel.com, sourced 12 December 2015
  8. "The Leap Cane Lift (entry 602748)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
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