Public Trails Computed from official land records

Clarence Valley · Lucifers Thumb

Lucifers Thumb from Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track

entry is a track 30 m of climb chain confidence Statutory inference — evidence class lucifers-thumb--from-lucifer-s-thumb-walking-track

Access verdict · Lawful, nothing to flag · weakest evidence in the chain: statutory inference

A lawful approach from Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track.

The chain below runs entirely across land the public has an established right to be on. It is a legal line, not a path: nothing here has been surveyed on the ground.

What this verdict means · what the evidence grades mean

On-ground signage and temporary closures override this page. Always.

Getting to the start The trailhead coordinate, not the feature

The start is at -30.05582, 152.32202

That is Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, where the walk below begins — 2.0 km of it. Every link here goes to that coordinate and never to the feature itself, because a driving route to a waterfall is a driving route into the country above one.

-30.05582, 152.32202

The record does not say what reaches the start The roads layer leaves trafficability unstated on most of its rows, and it is unstated here. That is an absence of evidence, not an ordinary road: treat the last stretch as unresearched.

The coordinate is where the recorded way begins, read off the same layers as the walk. What the record says about a vehicle is above, and it describes this point rather than the drive to it. Whether the road is sealed, gated, or open today, and where a car may lawfully be left, are none of them things these records say — so treat the last few kilometres as unresearched, and the mapping service's route to them as its own work, not ours.

The chain, leg by leg Computed from cadastral geometry; never walked

Legs of the computed corridor, in order, with the grade of the record that made each one lawful
# Runs along Parcel / reference Mapped along it Distance Bearing Evidence
1 Track Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track nothing mapped 1190.7 m 163.7° SSE Official spatial — evidence class
2 Track Escarpment Walking Track - 04 nothing mapped 171.2 m 239.4° WSW Official spatial — evidence class
3 Track Southern Spur & Guy Fawkes River Walk nothing mapped 591.4 m 285.8° WNW Official spatial — evidence class
Total no way mapped 1953.3 m Chain confidence Statutory inference — evidence class

Every leg above is computed from cadastral geometry. Nobody has walked it, and no part of it is a path on the ground: it is the line along which the public record establishes a right to be. Where a leg names a way, that is what a managing authority has mapped down the same ground — it says nothing more about your right to be there, which the parcel already settled.

Following it on the ground Every step ends at something you can check

at least 1¼ hours out and back

at least half an hour there at least three quarters of an hour back

30 m up and 220 m down on the way out — so the return leg climbs 220 m.

Walking only — nothing is counted for rest, water, photographs, navigation, or the state of the track.

Naismith's rule, and what it does not account for

The way passes this place Official spatial — evidence class

Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track passes 83 m from the recorded point. There is 30 m of climb or drop between the two, read at a 10.0 m contour interval. The contours give the height between them and never which way round it is, so this is a separation and not a descent to plan.

The way comes close enough to be a way to this place without the record establishing that it ends at it. A register gives a feature one coordinate and a feature is not a point, so the two measurements above are the whole of the claim: how far off the way passes, and what height separates the two. Nothing here says the last of that gap can be crossed. The walk below runs along the surveyed way and ends on it. Leaving it to close the rest of the gap is not something any record here describes, and this page does not suggest it.

  1. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 300 m, setting off SSW (198°), to the 970 m contour.

    Back: 18° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 300 m from the start.

  2. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 138 m, setting off S (180°), to the 960 m contour.

    Back: 360° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 438 m from the start.

  3. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 132 m, setting off SSE (166°), to the 960 m contour.

    Back: 346° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 570 m from the start.

  4. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 793 m, setting off SSE (160°), to the junction with Escarpment Walking Track - 05.

    Back: 340° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1363 m from the start.

  5. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 91 m, setting off WNW (301°), to the 950 m contour.

    Back: 121° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1454 m from the start.

  6. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 108 m, setting off WNW (301°), to the 930 m contour.

    Back: 121° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1562 m from the start.

  7. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 86 m, setting off WNW (282°), to the 900 m contour.

    Back: 102° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1648 m from the start.

  8. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 84 m, setting off W (277°), to the 840 m contour.

    Back: 97° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1732 m from the start.

  9. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 82 m, setting off W (278°), to the 810 m contour.

    Back: 98° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1815 m from the start.

  10. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 88 m, setting off W (277°), to the 780 m contour.

    Back: 97° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1903 m from the start.

  11. Follow Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track for 52 m, setting off W (275°), to arrive.

    Back: 95° along Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1955 m from the start.

1955 m in total, along the way the managing authority publishes. Every step above ends at something the records let you check on the ground. Bearings are true, not magnetic: they match a phone compass with no conversion. In this part of Queensland a magnetic bezel reads about 11° east of them, so an analogue compass needs that taken off before you set it.

What each step ends at, and why Official spatial — evidence class
contour
A mapped height. Checkable on a phone, and nothing else on the ground marks it.
junction
A junction with another published way. Unmissable on the ground, and the place a wrong turn happens.
destination
The place itself, which is always where the last step ends.

A cadastral parcel boundary is never one of them. It is invisible on the ground, so a step that ended at one could never be checked — however convenient it looks in the data.

How much climbing Read off the published contour layer

Distance along the route, 0 to 1952.7 m · height 760.0 to 970.0 m Read off 10.0 m contours along the route's own line Official spatial — evidence class
Total climb
30.0 m
Total descent
220.0 m
Steepest sustained
71.2% over 70.2 m
Contour interval
10.0 m
Every height the contours record along this route
Contour crossings along the route, in order, as distance along the route against mapped height
Distance along Height
0.5 m 950.0 m
18.0 m 960.0 m
59.1 m 970.0 m
300.0 m 970.0 m
438.1 m 960.0 m
491.1 m 960.0 m
570.2 m 960.0 m
1094.7 m 950.0 m
1223.3 m 950.0 m
1295.3 m 960.0 m
1384.7 m 960.0 m
1454.2 m 950.0 m
1515.5 m 940.0 m
1562.3 m 930.0 m
1601.4 m 920.0 m
1627.9 m 910.0 m
1648.1 m 900.0 m
1660.2 m 890.0 m
1667.3 m 880.0 m
1684.5 m 870.0 m
1698.1 m 860.0 m
1718.4 m 850.0 m
1732.4 m 840.0 m
1772.0 m 830.0 m
1799.4 m 820.0 m
1814.6 m 810.0 m
1825.8 m 800.0 m
1865.5 m 790.0 m
1902.8 m 780.0 m
1922.3 m 770.0 m
1952.7 m 760.0 m

The profile is the height the contour layer already records, read along the same line the legs above describe. It is not a survey of a path: nothing here says the ground between two contours is even, and a layer of 10.0 m contours cannot evidence a step smaller than the gap between them.

The line on the ground

Map

Route map: 3 legs from Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track, 1953.3 m in total.

Every figure the map would draw — parcel references, distances, bearings and the crossing gap — is written out in full on this page, so nothing is only visible on the map. If the map does not load, nothing has been lost.

What this verdict rests on Grades compose to the weakest link

  • The destination sits on Guy Fawkes River National Park Statutory inference — evidence class

    Parcel npws-350, recorded tenure "NATIONAL PARK". Being at the destination and reaching it are separate questions, and this page answers only the second.

    Cadastre and protected-area estate layers Attribution licensed

  • Leg 1: Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    1190.7 m at 163.7°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.

    Leg reference Lucifer's Thumb Walking Track Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 2: Escarpment Walking Track - 04 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    171.2 m at 239.4°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.

    Leg reference Escarpment Walking Track - 04 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 3: Southern Spur & Guy Fawkes River Walk carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    591.4 m at 285.8°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.

    Leg reference Southern Spur & Guy Fawkes River Walk Grade official_spatial

If something goes wrong

Emergency reference — read this to 000

Location
Lucifers Thumb, Guy Fawkes River National Park
Lot on plan
npws-350
Coordinates
-30.06507, 152.31776 (WGS84 / GDA2020)
Feature
ridge

What this approach was read from