LAPPING IT UP!

ON THE WESTERN EDGE OF FNQ'S ATHERTON TABLELANDS WE FOLLOW SOME LESSER-TRAVELLED ROUTES, VENTURING FROM THE REGION'S MINING AND RAILWAY HERITAGE TO AN ANCIENT VOLCANIC LANDSCAPE

- KEV SMITH

I HAVE come to love Far North Queensland, from Cape York across to the Gulf and especially discovering new areas with history attached. On a recent trip, I was pointed towards an area that sounded pretty cool to explore off the Burke Developmental Road in the Mareeba Shire. Finding the old town, or at least the turn-off for Lappa, wasn't that easy as there's nothing left from the old mining days if it wasn't for a prior chat with a local, I would have driven straight past. The sign on the top of a rise was marked for Mount Garnet, and this was the turn for Lappa. A short way up the road I found the main area of Lappa and the historic Espanol Hotel built in 1901.

Turn back the clock to January 1891 when silver was discovered by Phil Hamlin and his party after they crossed the Featherbed Range a few miles to the north, and a dozen claims were set up and the town's name was changed from Wadestown to Lappa (other reports say the town was called Lappa Lappa). Lappa was just an isolated settlement until the railway line was built in 1899 en route to Chillagoe from the coast, and soon there was a junction at Lappa for the rail to head south to Mount Garnet. The town didn't last long and soon fell into disrepair, leaving only the hotel, an old house and the station behind.

Today, the old hotel is jam-packed full of memorabilia and souvenirs from travellers and locals. Sadly, it doesn't operate these days but you're welcome to bring a carton and be mesmerised by the amount of gear in the old pub. Just next door in the old house lives an interesting character who looks after the pub and is known as the Yappa from Lappa. He has collected a lot of the memorabilia in the pub, can spiel yarns from the days gone by and also help you empty your carton. The old house was the Almaden church, which was built in 1900 and moved to Lappa in 1940.