Young victims of a horrific crash on a Gold Coast hinterland road have been identified as Townsville university students.

Three women and a man were travelling in a sedan on Nerang Murwillumbah Rd amid heavy rainfall on Saturday afternoon when initial reports indicated the driver lost control of the vehicle and collided with an oncoming ute.

It's believed Deeragun resident Lochlan Parker, 20, Katrina McKeogh, 21 of Mount Louisa, Courtney Smith, 20, from Emerald, and Kirsten Van Gorp, 22, from Brisbane were sightseeing while on university holidays.

All four died at the scene, while the 31-year-old male driver of the ute was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital with minor injuries.

Its understood all four of the victims were students at James Cook University.

Mr Parker was due to graduate from a Bachelor of Engineering in 2021. He grew up in Townsville and completed his schooling at St. Anthony's Catholic College, according to his professional networking profile.

Originally from Nuhlunbuy in the Northern Territory, its understood Ms McKeough moved to Townsville to study a Bachelor of Engineering. Ms McKeough had a promising career ahead of her and was awarded the 2019 Glencore Prize in Engineering and 2019 Glencore Prize in Science.

Courtney Smith, was also a former student of James Cook University where she graduated in 2019 before commencing study at Queensland University of Technology in late 2019.

The crash was so catastrophic that detectives from the Criminal Investigation branch were brought in to assist officers from the Forensic Crash Unit as part of a response featuring dozens of emergency service first responders.

Originally published as Crash victims died sightseeing on uni holidays