Public Trails Computed from official land records

Scenic Rim Official spatial — evidence class · Scenic Rim · QLD

St Bernard Falls

No lawful route approaches were tested; none carried a right of passage

Gazetted name -27.96689, 153.19769 waterfall

Access verdict · Unconfirmed · weakest evidence in the chain: official spatial record

No lawful approach to this place could be established from the public record.

Every entry point tested ends at land the public has no established right to cross. This page publishes the refusal and the reason, and no route line of any kind.

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 waterfall — a step in a watercourse steep enough that the water falls clear of the bed rather than running down it. The step is usually a band of harder rock the creek has been unable to cut through as fast as the softer rock below, so the drop moves slowly upstream over time and leaves a gorge behind it.

St Bernard Falls sits on Guanaba Creek. The surveyed centreline of that watercourse runs 11.8 m from the recorded point, which is the whole evidence for saying it is this one. Official spatial — evidence class

The point falls outside every protected-area estate in the snapshot.

The point falls outside every World Heritage property the state maps.

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

The remnant vegetation mapping records no ecosystem over this point. That covers remnant vegetation only, so it is what the register says about ground that has been cleared, or is water, sand or rock — not a statement that nothing grows here.

No register records how far the water falls. What the contours record is this: the terrain rule fired here because the bed loses 15.0 m within 32.3 m along the watercourse — the test the rule applies, not the height of the fall. Its steepest single stretch drops 5.0 m over 6.7 m of ground — 1 m down for every 1.3 m along the bed. That is a floor and not a total: the contour interval is the smallest drop this layer can show, so the face is at least this steep and may be far more. Statutory inference — 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 "St Bernard Falls" is a gazetted register entry. Gazetted — evidence class
Tenure Resolved to Freehold, recorded as "Freehold". Official spatial — evidence class
Parcel 8SP289179 Official spatial — evidence class
Council area This place sits inside Scenic Rim, tested against the boundary that council area publishes. Official spatial — evidence class
Estate This point falls outside every protected-area estate polygon in the snapshot. —
Watercourse Guanaba Creek, whose surveyed centreline runs 11.8 m away. Official spatial — evidence class
Feature Found by the terrain rule falls-rule/1, which fired because the bed loses 15.0 m within 32.3 m — the threshold it tests, not the height of the fall. Steepest stretch measured: 5.0 m over 6.7 m. A rule fired — nobody surveyed it. Statutory inference — evidence class

Where it is

Map — covers Scenic Rim

Map of St Bernard Falls and the starts of the 2 published approaches to it, over the parcels, corridors, estate and tracks around them.

Panning stops just outside Scenic Rim, 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 No published way within range

No vetted way the managing authority publishes comes within range of this point. That is a fact about the access record, not about the ground: an unmapped pad may well exist, and this site will not invent one on the strength of that.

Approaches — one page each 2 published of 50 computed

50 ways in were computed and 2 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.

St Bernard Falls from Alpine Terrace

Official spatial · No lawful route — evidence class st-bernard-falls--from-alpine-terrace
Verdict
No lawful route
One way
not published
Caveats
none

No lawful chain was established from this entry. The route page states why, and publishes no legs.

St Bernard Falls from Wire Rope Falls Break

Official spatial · Unconfirmed — evidence class st-bernard-falls--from-wire-rope-falls-break
Verdict
Unconfirmed
One way
not published
Caveats
none

No lawful chain was established from this entry. The route page states why, and publishes no legs.

Before you go Published alerts as at the snapshot date

The authority that manages this area publishes its alerts as data, and it published none for here in the snapshot this page was built from. That is not the same as "open" — a snapshot is a moment, and conditions move faster than one.

On Country

Registered Aboriginal cultural heritage party: Gold Coast Native Title Group — 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 no estate designation resolved

Conduct rules follow from tenure and the legislation that governs it. Nothing specific is inferred here, which means you should read the signs, not that no rules apply.

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
St Bernard Falls
Lot on plan
8SP289179
Coordinates
-27.96689, 153.19769 (WGS84 / GDA2020)
Feature
waterfall

What this place was read from