Public Trails Computed from official land records

Gold Coast · Purling Brook

Purling Brook from minimally formed natural track off Springbrook Road

entry is a track 10 m of climb chain confidence Statutory inference — evidence class purling-brook--from-minimally-formed-natural-track-off-springbrook-road-3

Access verdict · Lawful, with caveats · weakest evidence in the chain: statutory inference

A lawful approach from minimally formed natural track off Springbrook Road, with caveats.

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 -28.20386, 153.27171

That is minimally formed natural track off Springbrook Road, 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.

-28.20386, 153.27171

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 Road reserve 3774895 nothing mapped 12.0 m 9.1° N Official spatial — evidence class
2 Road reserve 3769917 Springbrook Road open 714.1 m 346.8° NNW Official spatial — evidence class
3 Protected estate 5AP19371 nothing mapped 104.7 m 346.8° NNW Official spatial — evidence class
4 Road reserve 3754413 Springbrook Road open 67.5 m 327.7° NNW Official spatial — evidence class
5 Road reserve 3754527 Springbrook Road open 89.1 m 336.3° NNW Official spatial — evidence class
6 Road reserve 3754299 Carricks Road open 157.6 m 28.4° NNE Official spatial — evidence class
7 Protected estate 5AP19371 Carricks Road open 22.6 m 357.3° N Official spatial — evidence class
8 Protected estate 5AP19371 nothing mapped 225.7 m 344.9° NNW Official spatial — evidence class
9 Watercourse bed 3755173 nothing mapped 216.8 m 39.3° NE Statutory inference — evidence class
10 Protected estate 5AP19371 Purling Brook Falls Circuit - Bitumen (Great Walk) open 44.2 m 31.3° NNE Official spatial — evidence class
Total 976.1 m mapped 1654.3 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.

Caveats — what has to be said before walking this

  • Corner-point junction. Two parcels in the chain meet at a single survey point. They are legally continuous public land, but the junction has no width on the ground.
  • Watercourse crossing. The chain crosses a watercourse bed. The bed is State land by statutory inference, there is no structure, and the crossing is off in high flow.
  • Measured crossing. The narrowest gap between 5AP19371 and 5AP19371 is 0.00 m. There is no structure. Do not cross in high flow.

Following it on the ground No steps, but the record maps ground here

at least three quarters of an hour out and back

at least a quarter of an hour there at least half an hour back

10 m up and 110 m down on the way out — so the return leg climbs 110 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

What is mapped along this chain

A managing authority has surveyed a way along 976 m of this 1654 m chain — about 59% of it. That is a statement about what is on the ground, not about your right to be there, which the parcels above already settled, and not a direction: no step below is measured along any of these ways.

  • Leg 2 Springbrook Road Official spatial — evidence class

    605 m along it · the managing authority publishes it as open to the public (Local Government Authority).

  • Legs 4–5 Springbrook Road Official spatial — evidence class

    147 m along it · the managing authority publishes it as open to the public (Local Government Authority).

  • Legs 6–7 Carricks Road Official spatial — evidence class

    180 m along it · the managing authority publishes it as open to the public .

  • Leg 10 Purling Brook Falls Circuit - Bitumen (Great Walk) Official spatial — evidence class

    44 m along it · the managing authority publishes it as open to the public (Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service).

No directions are published for this approach. The chain above is a statement about permission, not a path, and turning a run of parcels into "walk north-east for 380 m" would tell you where to walk on evidence nobody holds — including where a way is mapped along it, because what was measured is the chain and not the way. Steps appear here only for a route that follows a surveyed way end to end.

How much climbing Read off the published contour layer

Distance along the route, 0 to 1642.5 m · height 570.0 to 680.0 m Read off 5.0 m contours along the route's own line Official spatial — evidence class
Total climb
10.0 m
Total descent
110.0 m
Steepest sustained
30.2% over 66.2 m
Contour interval
5.0 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
27.9 m 670.0 m
48.0 m 675.0 m
68.8 m 680.0 m
122.1 m 680.0 m
139.9 m 675.0 m
156.1 m 670.0 m
172.8 m 665.0 m
188.4 m 660.0 m
210.2 m 655.0 m
263.8 m 650.0 m
288.7 m 645.0 m
307.9 m 640.0 m
408.2 m 640.0 m
430.3 m 640.0 m
488.6 m 635.0 m
513.8 m 630.0 m
621.5 m 625.0 m
671.4 m 620.0 m
741.1 m 615.0 m
784.3 m 610.0 m
811.9 m 610.0 m
889.1 m 610.0 m
928.7 m 605.0 m
1060.2 m 600.0 m
1097.5 m 595.0 m
1097.7 m 595.0 m
1100.6 m 595.0 m
1172.7 m 590.0 m
1184.5 m 590.0 m
1185.1 m 590.0 m
1287.8 m 585.0 m
1387.3 m 580.0 m
1529.1 m 575.0 m
1543.5 m 575.0 m
1575.8 m 575.0 m
1619.9 m 575.0 m
1630.3 m 575.0 m
1642.5 m 570.0 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 5.0 m contours cannot evidence a step smaller than the gap between them.

The line on the ground

Map

Route map: 10 legs from minimally formed natural track off Springbrook Road, 1654.3 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 Springbrook National Park Official spatial — evidence class

    Parcel 5AP19371, 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: 3774895 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    12.0 m at 9.1°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 3774895 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 2: 3769917 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    714.1 m at 346.8°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 3769917 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 3: 5AP19371 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    104.7 m at 346.8°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 5AP19371 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 4: 3754413 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    67.5 m at 327.7°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 3754413 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 5: 3754527 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    89.1 m at 336.3°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 3754527 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 6: 3754299 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    157.6 m at 28.4°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 3754299 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 7: 5AP19371 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    22.6 m at 357.3°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 5AP19371 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 8: 5AP19371 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    225.7 m at 344.9°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 5AP19371 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 9: 3755173 carries a right of passage Statutory inference — evidence class

    216.8 m at 39.3°. The bed is State land by statutory inference from the Water Act 2000 (Qld) s.21 — law applied to a mapped parcel, not a finding by any authority.

    Leg reference 3755173 Grade statutory_inference

  • Leg 10: 5AP19371 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    44.2 m at 31.3°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 5AP19371 Grade official_spatial

  • The chain is only as strong as its weakest link Statutory inference — evidence class

    Confidence is not an average. It is the weakest class in the chain above, which is why a single inferred leg holds the whole route at statutory inference.

    Composition rule: weakest grade wins Applied at build time

If something goes wrong

Emergency reference — read this to 000

Location
Purling Brook, Springbrook National Park
Lot on plan
5AP19371
Coordinates
-28.19004, 153.27087 (WGS84 / GDA2020)
Feature
watercourse