Public Trails Computed from official land records

Gold Coast Official spatial — evidence class · Gold Coast · QLD

Sphinx Lookout

Lawful route land the public may cross — no track, you navigate it

Gazetted name -28.24333, 153.26389 Springbrook National Park · National Park lookout

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

Public land — inside Springbrook National Park. No published track reaches it — the lawful ground to it is a chain of parcels.

Being at this point is lawful on the records below. Getting there is a separate question, answered route by route — and each route carries its own verdict and its own caveats.

What this verdict means · what the evidence grades mean

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

What this place is A definition, then the record

A lookout — a place built or cleared to be looked out from — a platform, a railing, a break in the trees at the edge of a fall. The register names the viewing place itself, not what is visible from it, so what a lookout looks over is not something this site can read off the record.

No watercourse the register names runs within range of Sphinx Lookout. The layer maps far more creeks than it has ever named, so that is a gap in the record rather than dry ground.

The point falls inside Springbrook National Park, designated National Park. Official spatial — evidence class

The point falls inside Gondwana Rainforests of Australia , a property inscribed on the World Heritage List. That is where the ground is, and it is not a statement about who may walk there — access is the tenure question above. Official spatial — evidence class

The rock at the surface is basalt, mapped as Hobwee Basalt (Tlh) , oligocene - miocene in age. The survey describes it as: Olivine basalt Official spatial — evidence class

The register maps one ecosystem over this ground, each with the share of it the register states.

  • 100% — Complex notophyll vine forest on Cainozoic igneous rocks, usually at altitude of more than 600m 12.8.5 · Least concern Official spatial — evidence class

On the record — what the registers actually say Sources, licences and dataset versions

What each register holds about this place
Claim What the record says Evidence
Name "Sphinx Lookout" is a gazetted register entry. Gazetted — evidence class
Tenure Resolved to Protected estate, recorded as "National Park". Official spatial — evidence class
Parcel 5AP19371 Official spatial — evidence class
Council area This place sits inside Gold Coast, tested against the boundary that council area publishes. Official spatial — evidence class
Estate Springbrook National Park , designated National Park. Declared under the Nature Conservation Act 1992; IUCN category II; 6,554 ha as gazetted; current gazettal 26 Mar 2020; first gazetted 3 Nov 1960; no encumbrance recorded. Official spatial — evidence class
Watercourse No named watercourse in the snapshot runs within range of this point. The layer maps many creeks it has never named. —
Feature Recorded as a lookout in the source layer; no terrain rule was needed to find it. Official spatial — evidence class

Where it is

Map — covers Gold Coast

Map of Sphinx Lookout and the starts of the 4 published approaches to it, over the parcels, corridors, estate and tracks around them.

Panning stops just outside Gold Coast, because the map archive is published one council area at a time. Every other council area Public Trails covers has a map of its own.

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.

Is there a track to it Measured in plan and in section

The way stops short of this place Official spatial — evidence class

Best Of All Lookout Track passes 184 m from the recorded point. There is 20 m of climb or drop between the two, read at a 5.0 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 way passes further off than anything the record can call a way to this place — or, where being above or below a feature is no answer at all, it is on the wrong level of it. Two measurements are used rather than one precisely so neither distance nor height can settle this on its own. Nothing here says how to close the remaining gap: no authority has surveyed a way across it, and a bearing off the end of a track is exactly the guess this site refuses to make.

Approaches — one page each 4 published of 15 computed

15 ways in were computed and 4 are published here. The rest either reach the same ground from a few hundred metres away — the same drive and the same walk — or reach no lawful chain at all, which is only worth saying when nothing else does.

Sphinx Lookout from Bakers Road

Official spatial · Lawful, nothing to flag — evidence class sphinx-lookout--from-bakers-road-2
Verdict
Lawful, nothing to flag
One way
3082.9 m
Caveats
none

A lawful chain was established from this entry. Open the route page for the legs, the crossings and what each one rests on.

Sphinx Lookout from formed sealed track off Repeater Station Road

Official spatial · Lawful, nothing to flag — evidence class sphinx-lookout--from-formed-sealed-track-off-repeater-station-road
Verdict
Lawful, nothing to flag
One way
1571.2 m
Caveats
none

A lawful chain was established from this entry. Open the route page for the legs, the crossings and what each one rests on.

Sphinx Lookout from Repeater Station Road

Official spatial · Lawful, nothing to flag — evidence class sphinx-lookout--from-repeater-station-road
Verdict
Lawful, nothing to flag
One way
945.0 m
Caveats
none

A lawful chain was established from this entry. Open the route page for the legs, the crossings and what each one rests on.

Sphinx Lookout from Springbrook Road

Official spatial · Lawful, with caveats — evidence class sphinx-lookout--from-springbrook-road-2
Verdict
Lawful, with caveats
One way
2625.6 m
Caveats
Corner-point junction

A lawful chain was established from this entry. Open the route page for the legs, the crossings and what each one rests on.

Before you go Published alerts as at the snapshot date

park_alert · Springbrook National Park

Toilets closed at Tallanbana trailhead (update 1 Jul): Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) have determined that visitor amenities situated at the Tallanbana trailhead are not performing to optimum standards.

Published by the managing authority. Follow the link for the current wording; this page carries only what the snapshot held.

park_alert · Springbrook National Park

Unplanned works - Woonoongoora Walkers' Camp (update 9 Jul): The Woonoongoora Walkers’ Camp is closed to new bookings from May to September 2026, due to works in the area. As a result, a temporary closure is in place from May to 30 September 2026, inclusive, weather permitting. Visitors can bypass the camping area and still complete the Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk.

Published by the managing authority. Follow the link for the current wording; this page carries only what the snapshot held.

On Country

Registered Aboriginal cultural heritage party: Danggan Balun (Five Rivers) People — this point falls inside the registered party boundary. Official spatial — evidence class

A cultural heritage party boundary and a native title claim are different legal things. This page never conflates them, and it publishes neither as a permission.

All land and waters in Queensland carry a duty of care under s.23 of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 (Qld) — including here. Cultural heritage site locations are restricted by law (ss.38–46), deliberately, for site protection. This site holds party boundaries only and will never republish site locations. Check the public register and, where in doubt, seek guidance from the Aboriginal party for the area.

Searching a register does not of itself satisfy the duty of care.

Rules here — derived from tenure National Park · statutory inference

This point sits on protected estate. In Queensland that ordinarily means no dogs or pets, no open fires outside provided facilities, no camping outside designated areas, no drones without authority, and nothing taken. These follow from the tenure and the legislation that governs it — they are statutory inference, not a copy of a sign.

Statutes relied on: Nature Conservation Act 1992 (Qld) and its regulations for protected estate; Water Act 2000 (Qld) s.21 for watercourse beds; Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 (Qld) ss.23 and 38–46 for the duty of care and for why site locations are never republished here.

If something goes wrong

Emergency reference — read this to 000

Location
Sphinx Lookout, Springbrook National Park
Lot on plan
5AP19371
Coordinates
-28.24333, 153.26389 (WGS84 / GDA2020)
Feature
lookout

What this place was read from