Public Trails Computed from official land records

Sunshine Coast · Bluegum Creek (South Branch)

Bluegum Creek (South Branch) from Irwin Road

entry is a road 0 m of climb chain confidence Official spatial — evidence class bluegum-creek-south-branch--from-irwin-road

Access verdict · Lawful, nothing to flag · weakest evidence in the chain: official spatial record

A lawful approach from Irwin Road.

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 -26.84294, 152.95869

That is Irwin Road, where the walk below begins — 764 m 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.

-26.84294, 152.95869

Four-wheel-drive only The roads layer marks the road reaching this point as four-wheel-drive. A vehicle that gets most of the way along a road like this can still be stopped by the last of it.

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 Utilities Access nothing mapped 694.6 m 184.3° S Official spatial — evidence class
2 Track minimally formed natural track off Steve Irwin Way nothing mapped 68.9 m 44.2° NE Official spatial — evidence class
Total no way mapped 763.5 m Chain confidence Official spatial — 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 half an hour out and back

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

0 m up and 5 m down on the way out — so the return leg climbs 5 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 reaches this place Official spatial — evidence class

Utilities Access passes 16 m from the recorded point. The gap crosses no contour, which is as level as this layer can evidence — not a survey saying the ground is flat.

Both gaps are small enough that the way is a way to this place, not merely one near it.

  1. Follow Utilities Access for 89 m, setting off S (185°), to the junction with Track.

    Back: 5° along Utilities Access, 89 m from the start.

  2. Follow Utilities Access for 118 m, setting off S (185°), to the junction with Track.

    Back: 5° along Utilities Access, 207 m from the start.

  3. Follow Utilities Access for 139 m, setting off S (188°), to the junction with another published way.

    Back: 8° along Utilities Access, 346 m from the start.

  4. Follow Utilities Access for 94 m, setting off S (188°), to the junction with Track.

    Back: 8° along Utilities Access, 440 m from the start.

  5. Follow Utilities Access for 81 m, setting off S (183°), to the junction with Track.

    Back: 3° along Utilities Access, 521 m from the start.

  6. Follow Utilities Access for 120 m, setting off S (181°), to the junction with Track.

    Back: 1° along Utilities Access, 640 m from the start.

  7. Follow Utilities Access for 88 m, setting off SE (137°), to the junction with Track.

    Back: 317° along Utilities Access, 729 m from the start.

  8. Follow Utilities Access for 35 m, setting off NE (42°), to arrive.

    Back: 222° along Utilities Access, 764 m from the start.

764 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
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 692.2 m · height 25.0 to 30.0 m Read off 5.0 m contours along the route's own line Official spatial — evidence class
Total climb
0.0 m
Total descent
5.0 m
Steepest sustained
6.1% over 81.5 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
293.4 m 30.0 m
374.9 m 25.0 m
381.2 m 25.0 m
547.0 m 25.0 m
550.4 m 25.0 m
634.7 m 25.0 m
636.8 m 25.0 m
639.0 m 25.0 m
641.9 m 25.0 m
647.2 m 25.0 m
692.2 m 25.0 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: 2 legs from Irwin Road, 763.5 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 Beerwah State Forest Official spatial — evidence class

    Parcel 561AP22457, recorded tenure "State Forest". 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: Utilities Access carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    694.6 m at 184.3°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.

    Leg reference Utilities Access Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 2: minimally formed natural track off Steve Irwin Way carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    68.9 m at 44.2°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.

    Leg reference minimally formed natural track off Steve Irwin Way Grade official_spatial

If something goes wrong

Emergency reference — read this to 000

Location
Bluegum Creek (South Branch), Beerwah State Forest
Lot on plan
561AP22457
Coordinates
-26.84861, 152.95861 (WGS84 / GDA2020)
Feature
watercourse

What this approach was read from