Public Trails Legal access to wild places, computed from official records

Gold Coast Hinterland · Morans Falls

Morans Falls from formed paved track

entry is a track 28 m of climb chain confidence B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record morans-falls--from-formed-paved-track-2
  • A Gazetted / register — The fact is itself a statutory record.
  • B Official spatial record — Read from a maintained government layer.
  • C Statutory inference — Law applied to B-grade records; not ground-truthed.
  • D Community record — Community sources; labelled, never blended into A–C.

Access verdict · tier 1 of 4 · confidence B (official spatial record, the weakest grade in the chain)

A lawful approach from formed paved 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.

  1. 1 · Formal track A managed track on public estate, end to end. Walk it. This page is here.
  2. 2 · Public estate, no track Lawful to be there; unmanaged terrain and route caveats below.
  3. 3 · Unconfirmed No lawful chain could be established from the public record. No route published.
  4. 4 · No lawful route Enclosed by land the public has no right to cross. No route published.

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

Getting to the start The trailhead coordinate, not the feature

The start is at -28.22939, 153.13110

That is formed paved track, where the walk below begins — 1.7 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.

-28.22939, 153.13110

The coordinate is where the recorded way begins, read off the same layers as the walk. Which roads reach it, whether they are 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 formed paved track nothing mapped 340.4 m 220.4° SW B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record
2 Track Morans Falls/Red Road nothing mapped 1315.6 m 249.5° WSW B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record
Total no way mapped 1656.0 m Chain confidence B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record

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

The way reaches somewhere to see it from B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record

The nearest published way passes 96 m from the recorded point. There is 17 m of climb or drop between the two, read at a 1.0 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 register signs this way for this place, and it comes within reach of it and stops above or below it — so it is where the walk is meant to end, and what it ends at is a view rather than the feature itself. The walk below is published on that basis, with the viewpoint as its destination rather than the place itself.

  1. Follow the way for 97 m, setting off WSW (243°), to the junction with Road.

    Back: 63° along the way, 97 m from the start.

  2. Follow the way for 99 m, setting off SW (218°), to the junction with Road.

    Back: 38° along the way, 196 m from the start.

  3. Follow the way for 94 m, setting off SSW (210°), to the junction with Road.

    Back: 30° along the way, 290 m from the start.

  4. Follow the way for 89 m, setting off SSW (212°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 32° along the way, 379 m from the start.

  5. Follow the way for 86 m, setting off SSE (167°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 347° along the way, 464 m from the start.

  6. Follow the way for 83 m, setting off ESE (116°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 296° along the way, 547 m from the start.

  7. Follow the way for 111 m, setting off ESE (113°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 293° along the way, 658 m from the start.

  8. Follow the way for 211 m, setting off SE (144°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 324° along the way, 869 m from the start.

  9. Follow the way for 87 m, setting off NW (305°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 125° along the way, 956 m from the start.

  10. Follow the way for 96 m, setting off WNW (299°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 119° along the way, 1052 m from the start.

  11. Follow the way for 157 m, setting off WSW (257°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 77° along the way, 1209 m from the start.

  12. Follow the way for 102 m, setting off WSW (247°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 67° along the way, 1311 m from the start.

  13. Follow the way for 86 m, setting off WNW (298°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 118° along the way, 1397 m from the start.

  14. Follow the way for 116 m, setting off NNW (332°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 152° along the way, 1513 m from the start.

  15. Follow the way for 90 m, setting off NW (317°), to the junction with Red Road.

    Back: 137° along the way, 1603 m from the start.

  16. Follow the way for 54 m, setting off WNW (295°), to arrive.

    Back: 115° along the way, 1656 m from the start.

1656 m in total, along the way the managing authority publishes. The record carries no name for it, so the steps above say only “the way” rather than guessing one. 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 B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record
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 1652.6 m · height 783.0 to 874.0 m Read off 1.0 m contours along the route's own line B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record
Total climb
28.0 m
Total descent
119.0 m
Steepest sustained
23.1% over 52.0 m
Contour interval
1.0 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
3.0 m 874.0 m
13.4 m 873.0 m
19.0 m 872.0 m
22.7 m 871.0 m
26.4 m 870.0 m
30.3 m 869.0 m
34.5 m 868.0 m
39.5 m 867.0 m
39.5 m 867.0 m
43.6 m 866.0 m
47.7 m 865.0 m
52.2 m 864.0 m
56.6 m 863.0 m
60.9 m 862.0 m
65.6 m 861.0 m
71.0 m 860.0 m
76.9 m 859.0 m
82.6 m 858.0 m
87.3 m 857.0 m
92.5 m 856.0 m
98.2 m 855.0 m
103.9 m 854.0 m
112.2 m 853.0 m
118.4 m 852.0 m
124.4 m 851.0 m
130.6 m 850.0 m
135.3 m 849.0 m
138.9 m 848.0 m
142.6 m 847.0 m
150.9 m 846.0 m
162.7 m 845.0 m
170.1 m 844.0 m
175.8 m 843.0 m
180.9 m 842.0 m
185.3 m 841.0 m
189.7 m 840.0 m
194.8 m 839.0 m
201.2 m 838.0 m
207.5 m 837.0 m
214.2 m 836.0 m
220.1 m 835.0 m
226.0 m 834.0 m
231.1 m 833.0 m
235.2 m 832.0 m
239.6 m 831.0 m
256.2 m 830.0 m
264.0 m 829.0 m
275.6 m 828.0 m
288.1 m 827.0 m
313.1 m 827.0 m
340.8 m 827.0 m
347.0 m 826.0 m
352.5 m 825.0 m
357.2 m 824.0 m
362.0 m 823.0 m
367.0 m 822.0 m
372.9 m 821.0 m
380.8 m 820.0 m
389.5 m 819.0 m
394.8 m 818.0 m
400.4 m 817.0 m
407.6 m 816.0 m
421.6 m 815.0 m
429.6 m 814.0 m
446.2 m 813.0 m
459.9 m 812.0 m
467.8 m 811.0 m
477.6 m 810.0 m
486.1 m 809.0 m
498.8 m 808.0 m
518.9 m 807.0 m
552.8 m 806.0 m
584.6 m 805.0 m
602.0 m 804.0 m
615.8 m 803.0 m
640.7 m 802.0 m
656.8 m 801.0 m
666.3 m 800.0 m
673.5 m 799.0 m
677.7 m 798.0 m
683.9 m 797.0 m
692.0 m 796.0 m
700.4 m 795.0 m
711.8 m 794.0 m
717.2 m 793.0 m
724.7 m 792.0 m
764.0 m 792.0 m
772.8 m 793.0 m
780.4 m 794.0 m
789.1 m 795.0 m
819.4 m 796.0 m
837.1 m 796.0 m
860.2 m 795.0 m
869.7 m 794.0 m
880.7 m 793.0 m
893.8 m 792.0 m
971.8 m 792.0 m
999.3 m 793.0 m
1007.2 m 793.0 m
1012.5 m 792.0 m
1015.9 m 791.0 m
1024.7 m 791.0 m
1029.8 m 792.0 m
1033.8 m 793.0 m
1037.4 m 794.0 m
1041.6 m 795.0 m
1046.5 m 796.0 m
1054.4 m 797.0 m
1066.9 m 797.0 m
1089.9 m 796.0 m
1099.7 m 795.0 m
1108.8 m 794.0 m
1117.7 m 793.0 m
1125.4 m 792.0 m
1129.4 m 792.0 m
1139.6 m 793.0 m
1147.8 m 794.0 m
1155.6 m 795.0 m
1167.4 m 796.0 m
1180.0 m 797.0 m
1190.9 m 798.0 m
1202.8 m 799.0 m
1212.6 m 800.0 m
1233.4 m 801.0 m
1240.2 m 802.0 m
1245.4 m 803.0 m
1251.6 m 804.0 m
1262.3 m 805.0 m
1278.3 m 806.0 m
1285.2 m 807.0 m
1292.3 m 808.0 m
1299.6 m 809.0 m
1319.7 m 809.0 m
1325.7 m 808.0 m
1331.1 m 807.0 m
1339.9 m 806.0 m
1350.3 m 806.0 m
1360.2 m 806.0 m
1371.2 m 806.0 m
1402.4 m 806.0 m
1450.7 m 806.0 m
1462.7 m 806.0 m
1471.1 m 805.0 m
1476.4 m 804.0 m
1505.0 m 804.0 m
1506.1 m 804.0 m
1518.1 m 803.0 m
1528.1 m 802.0 m
1535.8 m 801.0 m
1540.9 m 800.0 m
1547.5 m 799.0 m
1556.1 m 798.0 m
1562.1 m 797.0 m
1568.4 m 796.0 m
1574.1 m 795.0 m
1579.9 m 794.0 m
1585.7 m 793.0 m
1592.1 m 792.0 m
1602.3 m 791.0 m
1608.2 m 790.0 m
1613.4 m 789.0 m
1619.6 m 788.0 m
1625.7 m 787.0 m
1631.9 m 786.0 m
1638.8 m 785.0 m
1645.8 m 784.0 m
1652.6 m 783.0 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 1.0 m contours cannot evidence a step smaller than the gap between them.

The line on the ground

Map

Route map: 2 legs from formed paved track, 1656.0 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 Lamington National Park B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record

    Parcel 496AP22466, 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; see the footer

  • Leg 1: formed paved track carries a right of passage B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record

    340.4 m at 220.4°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.

    Leg reference formed paved track Grade B

  • Leg 2: Morans Falls/Red Road carries a right of passage B — provenance grade B: Official spatial record

    1315.6 m at 249.5°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.

    Leg reference Morans Falls/Red Road Grade B

If something goes wrong

Emergency reference — read this to 000

Location
Morans Falls, Lamington National Park
Lot on plan
496AP22466
Coordinates
-28.23183, 153.12599 (WGS84 / GDA2020)
Feature
waterfall

What this page will never do

  • No user pins

    Every fact here traces to a government layer or a statute and carries a grade, A to C. Community names are quarantined at grade D and labelled as such. Nothing on this page was dropped on a map by a stranger.

  • No invented lawfulness

    Where tenure cannot be confirmed from the public record, the page says so instead of endorsing the route or quietly hiding it. Where no lawful corridor exists at all, none is published — the refusal is the answer.

  • No safety pretence

    A tier is a tenure verdict, not a difficulty or safety rating. Unmanaged terrain, cliffs and flash flooding are not in the cadastre. The engine reads land records, not the weather.

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