Rolled through today, the area is looking absolutely beautiful, no rubbish in sight at all
Having a look on FB, it seems "Suzuki Sweep Ups" Club did a rubbish cleanup day on the 10th of November this year, used a unimog and pulled out a few car wrecks, over 3 tonnes of rubbish as well.
We entered off Upper Ormeau road, just south of the Cliff Barons Road enterance, North of the Boral Quarry. The track is clearly identified as a Public/Gazetted road by a Holcim sign just on the right of entrance, which also details the private ownership and public road delineation (I wish I took a photo of the sign, I will next time!). (
https://goo.gl/maps/7V3YXQAKZ5ESfomf8)
The two bordering properties are Boral and Holcim, which sandwich the track on occasions, but the private land is obviously sign posted, fenced, and gated. Reasonable effort has been implemented to provide information to the public about boundaries for private property.
There were no visible signs up from the Gold Coast City Council, National Parks, or any other body governing the public passage on the road, and there were no visible attempts to bar access to the road (No gates, No tank traps, no bollards), so it can be reasonably assumed that the main track is public gazetted road, and therefore there it can assumed there is no reason why you should not be accessing it. The roads are all displayed on google maps and Whereis.
The notion of sticking to the main labelled and mapped track is the most sensible thing to do, and is my recommendation.
After entering the track, turning right on Norbury Road (
https://goo.gl/maps/Stkv1APR3SKR9EHn6), and there seems to be the option to head west onto Shaws Pocket road. Continue north, Past Harts road, and turned right onto Cliff Barrons road (
https://goo.gl/maps/zhfQcHmm3Qwaz57k6) which takes you back to Upper Ormeau Road.
The most challenging parts of the track would have been Norbury Road up until the Cliff Barrons Rd turnoff. There were a few steep climbs that were very shaley, and rutted out. We had a stock wrangler and hilux (with all terrains), and managed with some skilled driving, only having to winch the hilux once , on a hill climb just south of Harts Rd, as the long wheel base was causing the vehicle to bottom out on the side steps, and lose traction in the rear due to lack of flex.
We bumped into a few other vehicles, assisted a stock BT-50 which survived through purely on its rear diff locker and some good line choice, and observed the usual P plate holiday action which eventuated to lots of panel damage and CV's deciding they would rather be in multiple pieces.
It had only rained slightly the night before, so the ground was a bit moist. In the wet, this track would be more challenging different story. If you decide to take a stock vehicle, very likely to damage bashplates and sidesteps, especially in the LWB dual cab utes. Some of the approaches to the climbs are sharp, so a few front lips on vehicles got a bashing.
Decent All terrains, 2" lift and some good bash plates - Make it a good but challenging day. Front or Rear lockers make things a lot nicer, but good modern traction control in the Jeep minimised any wheel slip.
I'd compare this terrain to the Watagans/Ourimbah, but with less variety, but a very good loop. We started at 0930, and were at Yatala Pies by 1230, so it's an awesome quick loop.