A rescue operation is under way after a critically injured bushwalker was found alive after falling from a cliff in the Lamington National Park on the Gold Coast.

Brisbane man Rory Lane, 26, was hiking with a friend along West Canungra Creek Circuit when the pair became separated on Sunday afternoon.

The injured man wandered into thick bushland before falling from a cliff and landing in a rocky waterway.

Seriously injured and without extra food or warm clothing, Mr Lane spent the night alone as temperatures dropped below 5 degrees.

Authorities launched an air and ground search at first light before a member of the public found the injured hiker in a creek bed on Monday morning.

“It appears to be a fall injury, so we’re expecting lacerations and potentially broken bones at this stage,” Senior Sergeant Mitchell Gray said on Monday, minutes after the missing man had been found.

Communication with the rescue team was difficult as authorities planned exactly how the injured man would be extricated from the isolated bush location.

“He is extremely lucky … he was located in a waterway at the base of a cliff.

“The timeframe for survival information that we received this morning is that in the current conditions and weather, he would have been OK till the end of Wednesday afternoon.”

Authorities will try to winch Mr Lane to safety by a rescue helicopter but if that fails, he will have to be carried out by stretcher.

The Brisbane man’s family were “over the moon” he had been found, police said.

– AAP