An investigation with an aerial drone shows that Wedding Cake Rock in the Royal National Park could collapse without warning.
Park rangers in Australia's Royal National Park have warned tourists they face a fine of $300 if they choose to risk their lives taking selfies on a popular cliff edge.
Wedding Cake Rock, or White Rock, on the coast of the park just south of Sydney, has become a social media hit thanks to daring and creative poses on its sheer, bleached precipice, including visitors who jump into the air for a photo or perform acrobatics above the 82 foot drop.
belle_lucia instagram wedding cake rock Despite installing warning signs and a fence two months ago, the authorities now feel it necessary to take it a step further and issue those who ignore the rules on-the-spot penalty notices.
Thanks to viral interest in the rock last year, visitor numbers surged from 2000 per month to more than 10,000, leading to authorities to shut access to the rock for a month. A geotechnical survey of the rock, which resembles crisp layers of cake, found it is unstable and likely to collapse within 10 years.
If performing a handstand on Wedding Cake Rock in Royal National Park looks dangerous, that's because it is. Photo: Instagram In 2014, a French student fell to his death nearby when a sandstone cliff crumbled beneath him. In November last year, two men had to be winched to safety from a ledge below after falling off the rock.
"People are being so incredibly reckless with a genuine, imminent danger," said Gary Dunnett of NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) regional manager told The Sydney Morning Herald.
"I honestly think that people don't understand that something that looks like a solid block of concrete is much closer to a block of silly putty, and it just does not have the structural strength that they think.
Wedding Cake Rock from the other side. Photo: National Parks and Wildlife Service "Unfortunately, it looks like the only way we're going to be able to give that message about the nature of the risk is through people's hip pockets."
Mr Dunnett told News.com.au that "people look at this pure, white rock, and they think it's as stable as concrete".
"But the white appearance is because oxides and other contaminants usually in the stone matrix are bleached out of it, and the result is that the rock is much more fragile than other coastal clifflines."
"Our expectation is that by issuing an amount of penalty notices, we are hoping to send a shock wave through social media, which is the same medium that started attracting people getting these photos in the first place."
"But we don't want to discourage people from visiting. From now to winter is the best time of year to visit. It's nice clear days, the coastline is long, but the simple reality is — the few square metres which has the fence around it is not the place to stand."
Mr Dunnett said that when the geotechnical assessment was carried out, he was expecting to hear that something might happen in the next thousand years, not ten.
Wedding Cake Rock is not the first controversial selfie spot. Trolltunga in Norway was in the news last year when an Australian student fell to her death from the rock.
A local tour operator said it was an accident waiting to happen.
The Telegraph, London
See also: Risky: Things you shouldn't do overseasSee also: Why tourists are the world's biggest whingers
Source: Wedding Cake Rock, Sydney: The travel photo that could cost tourists $300
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