Public Trails Computed from official land records

Sunshine Coast · Kuchs Crossing

Kuchs Crossing from minimally formed natural track off Staves Road

entry is a track 5 m of climb chain confidence Statutory inference — evidence class kuchs-crossing--from-minimally-formed-natural-track-off-staves-road

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

A lawful approach from minimally formed natural track off Staves 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 -26.65050, 152.80596

That is minimally formed natural track off Staves Road, where the walk below begins — 3.3 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.

-26.65050, 152.80596

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 Road reserve 538856 nothing mapped 506.9 m 46.9° NE Official spatial — evidence class
2 Road reserve 538742 nothing mapped 428.0 m 322.0° NW Official spatial — evidence class
3 Road reserve 540490 nothing mapped 779.9 m 306.8° NW Official spatial — evidence class
4 Watercourse bed 540718 nothing mapped 734.9 m 117.1° ESE Statutory inference — evidence class
5 Watercourse bed 536766 nothing mapped 840.3 m 140.4° SE Statutory inference — evidence class
6 Watercourse bed 538704 nothing mapped 35.2 m 76.3° ENE Statutory inference — evidence class
Total no way mapped 3325.2 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 540490 and 536766 is 82.26 m. There is no structure. Do not cross in high flow.
  • Measured crossing. The narrowest gap between 540718 and 538704 is 834.88 m. There is no structure. Do not cross in high flow.
  • Measured crossing. The gap between the parcels either side of this crossing could not be measured from the geometry, which is a reason for more caution, not less.

Following it on the ground No published way to follow

at least 1½ hours out and back

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

5 m up and 35 m down on the way out — so the return leg climbs 35 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

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 3243.5 m · height 110.0 to 140.0 m Read off 5.0 m contours along the route's own line Official spatial — evidence class
Total climb
5.0 m
Total descent
35.0 m
Steepest sustained
15.0% over 66.6 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
0.1 m 140.0 m
106.3 m 140.0 m
158.6 m 135.0 m
204.1 m 130.0 m
238.1 m 125.0 m
270.6 m 120.0 m
306.7 m 115.0 m
369.0 m 115.0 m
527.7 m 115.0 m
576.6 m 115.0 m
577.9 m 115.0 m
1697.6 m 110.0 m
1732.0 m 110.0 m
2401.2 m 115.0 m
2408.6 m 115.0 m
2432.6 m 110.0 m
2839.6 m 110.0 m
2914.7 m 110.0 m
2914.7 m 110.0 m
3088.7 m 110.0 m
3150.0 m 110.0 m
3195.3 m 110.0 m
3212.5 m 110.0 m
3224.9 m 110.0 m
3230.9 m 110.0 m
3236.8 m 110.0 m
3243.5 m 110.0 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: 6 legs from minimally formed natural track off Staves Road, 3325.2 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 the parcel below Official spatial — evidence class

    Parcel 538704, recorded tenure "Watercourse". 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: 538856 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    506.9 m at 46.9°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 538856 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 2: 538742 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    428.0 m at 322.0°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 538742 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 3: 540490 carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class

    779.9 m at 306.8°. Read from the mapped parcel geometry in the official layer, with no inference beyond what the record states.

    Leg reference 540490 Grade official_spatial

  • Leg 4: 540718 carries a right of passage Statutory inference — evidence class

    734.9 m at 117.1°. 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 540718 Grade statutory_inference

  • Leg 5: 536766 carries a right of passage Statutory inference — evidence class

    840.3 m at 140.4°. 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 536766 Grade statutory_inference

  • Leg 6: 538704 carries a right of passage Statutory inference — evidence class

    35.2 m at 76.3°. 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 538704 Grade statutory_inference

  • 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
Kuchs Crossing
Lot on plan
538704
Coordinates
-26.64889, 152.81306 (WGS84 / GDA2020)
Feature
ford

What this approach was read from