Sunshine Coast · Thilba Thalba Viewpoint
Thilba Thalba Viewpoint from Pickering East Break
Access verdict · Lawful, nothing to flag · weakest evidence in the chain: official spatial record
A lawful approach from Pickering East Break.
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.
On-ground signage and temporary closures override this page. Always.
Getting to the start The trailhead coordinate, not the feature
The start is at -26.59248, 152.79533
That is Pickering East Break, where the walk below begins — 1.9 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.
- Google Maps one link for a desktop browser, Android or iPhone
- Apple Maps the default on iPhone and Mac
- Your own map app hands the coordinate to an installed app, offline ones included
-26.59248, 152.79533
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
| # | Runs along | Parcel / reference | Mapped along it | Distance | Bearing | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Track | Pickering East Break | nothing mapped | 1610.7 m | 336.1° NNW | Official spatial — evidence class |
| 2 | Track | Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk | nothing mapped | 254.7 m | 343.9° NNW | Official spatial — evidence class |
| Total | no way mapped | 1865.4 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 1 hour out and back
at least half an hour there at least half an hour back
45 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.
The way reaches this place Official spatial — evidence class
Pickering East Break passes 9 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.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 101 m, setting off NNW (328°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 148° along Pickering East Break, 101 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 91 m, setting off NNE (21°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 201° along Pickering East Break, 192 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 93 m, setting off NNW (334°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 154° along Pickering East Break, 285 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 101 m, setting off NW (309°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 129° along Pickering East Break, 386 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 81 m, setting off WNW (296°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 116° along Pickering East Break, 466 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 81 m, setting off NNW (332°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 152° along Pickering East Break, 547 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 81 m, setting off NNE (22°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 202° along Pickering East Break, 629 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 82 m, setting off N (357°), to the junction with Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk.
Back: 177° along Pickering East Break, 710 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 88 m, setting off NNW (339°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 159° along Pickering East Break, 798 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 106 m, setting off N (1°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 181° along Pickering East Break, 904 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 92 m, setting off N (11°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 191° along Pickering East Break, 996 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 87 m, setting off NNW (336°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 156° along Pickering East Break, 1084 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 80 m, setting off NNW (334°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 154° along Pickering East Break, 1164 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 83 m, setting off NW (317°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 137° along Pickering East Break, 1247 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 80 m, setting off WNW (298°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 118° along Pickering East Break, 1327 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 91 m, setting off WNW (301°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 121° along Pickering East Break, 1419 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 104 m, setting off NNW (336°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 156° along Pickering East Break, 1523 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 81 m, setting off NNW (334°), to the junction with Pickering East Break.
Back: 154° along Pickering East Break, 1604 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 112 m, setting off NNW (327°), to the junction with Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk.
Back: 147° along Pickering East Break, 1716 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 90 m, setting off NNW (344°), to the 460 m contour.
Back: 164° along Pickering East Break, 1806 m from the start.
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Follow Pickering East Break for 60 m, setting off NNE (24°), to arrive.
Back: 204° along Pickering East Break, 1865 m from the start.
1865 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.
- contour
- A mapped height. Checkable on a phone, and nothing else on the ground marks it.
- 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
- Total climb
- 45.0 m
- Total descent
- 35.0 m
- Steepest sustained
- 19.1% over 52.3 m
- Contour interval
- 5.0 m
Every height the contours record along this route
| Distance along | Height |
|---|---|
| 59.0 m | 455.0 m |
| 143.8 m | 455.0 m |
| 143.9 m | 455.0 m |
| 145.2 m | 455.0 m |
| 227.6 m | 450.0 m |
| 399.2 m | 445.0 m |
| 470.1 m | 440.0 m |
| 669.6 m | 440.0 m |
| 845.2 m | 440.0 m |
| 846.0 m | 440.0 m |
| 847.0 m | 440.0 m |
| 872.8 m | 440.0 m |
| 930.2 m | 445.0 m |
| 983.8 m | 445.0 m |
| 990.8 m | 445.0 m |
| 995.3 m | 445.0 m |
| 998.8 m | 445.0 m |
| 1003.1 m | 445.0 m |
| 1133.7 m | 440.0 m |
| 1197.8 m | 440.0 m |
| 1226.0 m | 445.0 m |
| 1250.1 m | 450.0 m |
| 1302.4 m | 455.0 m |
| 1371.5 m | 455.0 m |
| 1483.7 m | 450.0 m |
| 1520.9 m | 445.0 m |
| 1556.8 m | 440.0 m |
| 1633.1 m | 440.0 m |
| 1701.2 m | 445.0 m |
| 1735.7 m | 450.0 m |
| 1762.6 m | 455.0 m |
| 1805.7 m | 460.0 m |
| 1846.9 m | 465.0 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 Pickering East Break, 1865.4 m in total.
What the colours mean
- Land — the council area the region is published under
- Water beyond the council boundary
- Freehold or leasehold — no public access
- National park / protected estate — public land
- Road reserve
- Watercourse
- Track recorded by the managing authority
- Contour, every 10 m of height — nothing is implied about the ground between two of them
- Tenure unresolved — treated as no access
- Where your device says you are, shown only if you press the locate button — read as a rough fix, not a position, and never sent anywhere
- A place with a published approach — the pin is a link to it
- A place with none — every one is listed under the map with its verdict in words
- Where a published approach starts — each one has a page of its own below
- The walk — the line the legs below describe, not a surveyed path
- The parcels it crosses — the evidence the walk is lawful
- Watercourse crossing — no structure, off in high flow
Names on the map come from the same official records as the rest of the page — road and track names from the cadastre and the access layer, watercourses and estates from their own layers. A feature the record does not name is left unlabelled rather than guessed at.
Sources, licences and dataset versions for everything this map draws.
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
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The destination sits on Mapleton National Park Official spatial — evidence class
Parcel 1239NPW1105, 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
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Leg 1: Pickering East Break carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class
1610.7 m at 336.1°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.
Leg reference Pickering East Break Grade official_spatial
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Leg 2: Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk carries a right of passage Official spatial — evidence class
254.7 m at 343.9°. A track recorded by the managing authority in its published access layer, at the vetting status that layer states.
Leg reference Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk Grade official_spatial
If something goes wrong
Emergency reference — read this to 000
- Location
- Thilba Thalba Viewpoint, Mapleton National Park
- Lot on plan
- 1239NPW1105
- Coordinates
- -26.57944, 152.78917 (WGS84 / GDA2020)
- Feature
- lookout
What this approach was read from
- Cadastral data Queensland (DCDB), incl. easement layer — © State of Queensland (Department of Resources) CC-BY-4.0 · snapshot 2026-08-22
- Queensland LiDAR-derived contours (5 m) — © State of Queensland CC-BY-4.0 · snapshot 2026-08-22
- Queensland local government area boundaries — © State of Queensland CC-BY-4.0 · snapshot 2026-08-27
- Queensland place names gazetteer — © State of Queensland CC-BY-4.0 · snapshot 2026-08-16
- QPWS access (walking tracks, roads, facilities) — © State of Queensland CC-BY-4.0 · snapshot 2026-08-23
- Queensland roads and tracks (named road centrelines) — © State of Queensland CC-BY-4.0 · snapshot 2026-08-22